The UK's first full-scale municipal biowaste digester has taken its first delivery of waste at Ludlow, South Shropshire.

The £2.6 million plant can process about 125 tonnes of food waste, garden waste and cardboard each week, collected fortnightly from all 19,000 households in the rural district.

Launch: (left to right) Russell Mullinor of Greenfinch with Cllr Susan McCormack of South Shropshire district council, Mark Pearce of Advantage West Midlands and Bill Haynes of Bluestone plc at the launch of the Ludlow AD plant.

Set up by local technology firm Greenfinch, the plant has received funding through Defra's New Technologies Demonstrator Programme as well as the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

Built on the Coder Road Business Park next to a waste transfer station run by the district's collection contractor, Biffa Waste Services, the new plant has the capacity to process about 5,000 tonnes of organic waste each year.

The arrival of the first delivery of waste was overseen by representatives from Advantage West Midlands, Greenfinch, South Shropshire District Council and construction company Bluestone plc.

Michael Chesshire, managing director of Greenfinch said: "This project demonstrates the capability of home-grown technology to show the way forward towards a low-carbon economy. We are very grateful to Advantage West Midlands and Defra for their financial support and to our project partner South Shropshire District Council."

Cardboard
Households in South Shropshire have all been given new dark green wheeled bins to deposit their kitchen and garden waste. Householders are also urged to put their cardboard packaging into their bins, as cardboard helps make the collection and treatment process commercially viable.

The Greenfinch plant, run as a joint venture with the council to meet EU State Aid rules, involves the treatment of organic waste with microbes in the absence of oxygen. The process results in the production of a methane-based biogas that is used to generate electricity and heat, as well as a solid, pasteurised fertiliser.

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South Shropshire district council

The facility includes a visitor centre which will be used to demonstrate to other local authorities how they might divert biodegradable waste from landfill.

Residents are now being offered a limited number of free 10-litre kitchen caddy containers to help them collect their kitchen waste along with their green wheeled bins. Coupons for the caddies have been given away within local newspapers.