The council has just begun a trial to assess the feasibility of food waste collections, with funding provided by the Welsh Assembly.
As part of their statutory recycling targets for municipal waste, Welsh councils have been set minimum composting targets. By 2005/06 authorities in Wales must recycle at least 10% of compostable waste, with this figure increasing to 15% by 2009/10.
” Green waste only generates a good volume for about half the year, so we will need to collect food waste all year round to drive up the tonnages.“
– Phil Williams, Carmarthenshire council
Carmarthenshire has received just over 1 million of regional development and Welsh Assembly funding to develop its existing 6,000 tonne capacity composting facility at Nant Y Caws to help the council meet its targets.
As part of the expansion, a small food waste composting system is also being trialled at the site, working with a research team from Cardiff University. The food waste trials will run for three months and will collect material from 5,000 homes. If successful, an expanded service will be phased in.
Essential
Phil Williams, waste management officer at the council, said food waste collections would be “essential” for Carmarthenshire to meet its “challenging” composting targets.
“Green waste only generates a good volume for about half the year, so we will need to collect food waste all year round to drive up the tonnages,” he said.
Welsh Assembly minister Carwyn Jones visited the Nant Y Caws site to see how 286,026 of Welsh Assembly Government funding is helping to develop a commercial scale composting facility to take kitchen and catering waste from the trials.
Commenting on the developments, the minister said: “The team at Nant y Caws is developing composting facilities on a massive scale, and these will have a huge impact on the amount of kitchen waste composted in Carmarthenshire. We need more projects like these to help local authorities achieve tough Welsh Assembly Government composting and recycling targets.”
Capacity
The council composted about 5% of the county's municipal waste in 2003/04. The extra funding means Carmarthenshire can also expand its existing green waste collections, which now cover 25,000 homes, to an extra 10,000 of the county's 80,000 homes, as well as four CA sites.
Carmarthenshire Waste Management, which operates the Nant Y Caws site, is to double the amount of composting capacity at the site.
Mr Williams said: “We need to try and meet the 10% target through the site, which will now be 10,000-12,000 tonne capacity, but we will need to bring extra about 10,000 extra homes onto the green waste and food scheme every year to meet the targets. It will be a real challenge.”
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He added: “We will expand the collections to as many houses as needed to meet the 10% and 15% targets.”
Quality
Part of the agreement that comes with the council's funding is that Carmarthenshire needs to make a 'good quality ' product from its waste. Composted green waste is currently sold for local landscaping and in bags to the public from CA sites.
Mr Williams commented: “It's all very well forcing Welsh councils to collect compostable waste, but we have to make sure that the end product is marketable too. It's a lot of work.”
Commenting on the food waste trials, Welsh environment minister, Carwyn Jones, said: “We need more projects like these to help local authorities achieve tough Welsh Assembly Government composting and recycling targets, and move away from our traditional over-dependence on landfill sites.”
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