Food waste trial case study

In April 2007 Bedfordshire County Council working with Mid Beds District Council launched a trial collection of food waste.  Food waste makes up around 16% of the average bin contents but is a material that is often over looked when it comes to recycling. Approximately 6,000 households in Cranfield, Flitwick, Shefford, Sandy and Potton are participating in the trial. It is an additional recycling service that runs along side normal rubbish and recycling collections.  

Residents taking part in the trial received a small brown food waste bin to put out on the kerbside for collection, a kitchen caddy to make it convenient to collect the kitchen scraps and a roll of special biodegradable corn starch bags to line the kitchen caddy (you can also use newspaper to wrap scraps in). Both raw and cooked foods including meat, dairy products and fruit and vegetable peelings can go into the kitchen caddy.

The food waste is collected once a week in a bespoke vehicle and taken to a special processing facility where it is treated in a fully enclosed vessel. As the food breaks down, the temperature is closely controlled, this ensures the waste food reaches a high enough temperature over a long enough period to kill any bacteria.

The finished product is totally sterile and can be used as a soil conditioner for general agricultural purposes such as to grow more crops, vegetables and fruit. The process also produces methane which is converted into renewable energy that is fed into the national grid.

Thanks to the efforts of the residents in the trial area over 590 tonnes of food waste have been diverted from landfill. Due to the success of the trial, Mid Beds District Council is now rolling out food waste collections to all residents in Mid Bedfordshire. Contact Steve Whittacker at Mid Beds District Council on 01767 602344 for more information about the food waste collections.