As you all know, composting is a great way to use up waste food and provide your garden and plants with nourishment. But not everyone has a garden and besides, there are other things you can do with food waste.
Recently here in Newcastle under Lyme, residents have been asked to separate out food waste into special bags or bins. As with a lot of recycling it can be hard to see the point and many have been wondering why they’re being asked to this. But that’s recycling for you; the big picture is always hard to see.
In this case, the food waste being collected is taken to an anaerobic digester.
When waste goes to landfill, it’s left to decompose, this creates methane which, if not syphoned off, can spontaneously combust and cause fires. These fires are very difficult to put out because they keep burning right in the centre of the landfill where it’s very hard to extinguish.
But, if we recreate this process in an anaerobic digester, we can produce something more useful than just methane. The process involves breaking down the organic waste (things like food, card, grass clippings or wood) in an oxygen free environment. And from this we get a mix of methane and carbon dioxide called Bio-Gas. We also get something called digestate, otherwise known as fertiliser.
The Bio-Gas can be further processed and burned to produce electricity and the digestate can be used to fertilise our crops.
Of course it’s not just household food waste, local supermarkets and other large businesses are joining in too. Together we’re helping to take some of the load off the fossil fuel reserves which will benefit everyone, not just our local area.
As with all recycling, we’re in this together.
