Although high oil prices may mean increases in transport costs within the sector, Peter Mills of composting technology firm New Earth Solutions said it could spur on an important market for composted municipal waste.
Mr Mills, who recently moved from Onyx to become sales and contracts director at Poole-based New Earth, said that more and more farmers are moving into the growing of crops for bio-fuel production – and these crops need a great deal of compost.
 New Earth Solutions is already trialling the composting of black bag residual waste at its plant in Poole |
With bio-fuels being made increasingly viable through new technologies and the high price of oil, the industrial agriculture sector could even become an important market for composted residual municipal waste, he said.
Mr Mills told letsrecycle.com: “These fuel crops are very hungry, they need feeding. And the organic material in black bag waste can be used on industrial crops with no worries about the food chain. Countries are looking at developing 10% to 30% of their fuel needs based on biodiesels, especially with the price of oil approaching $100 a barrel.”
He added: “I believe new and emerging technologies for waste management need to align themselves with other new and emerging technologies in other sectors.”
New Earth has employed a former farmer to attract agricultural interest in end products from the company's plants. “It's more effective talking farmer-to-farmer,” Mr Mills explained.
System
The New Earth system involves enclosed composting facilities that can treat green waste, food waste under animal by-product regulation (ABPR) conditions. Essentially, the plants are like windrow composting sites but indoors – with buildings divided into two halls for the ABPR requirement of a two barrier treatment system.
The company has also tested the treatment of black bag residual waste at its 10,000 tonne-capacity demonstration plant in Poole. “All it needs to treat a different kind of waste in the plant is different equipment at the front end and back end to process the material,” Mr Mills said.
” I believe new and emerging technologies for waste management need to align themselves with other new and emerging technologies in other sectors. “
– Peter Mills, New Earth
New Earth is developing pre-treatment processes including centrifugal technology to process difficult materials, such as animal fats which can turn the composting into an anaerobic process. The company hopes to find markets for as many materials as possible from its process – including plastics – within the UK.
Potential
As well as the Poole plant – which is being expanded to a 50,000 tonne capacity in the next few months – New Earth has won a contract to process material from Kent (see letsrecycle.com story), and also has options on 30 sites around the UK for potential new plants.
Mr Mills believes that ultimately, about 200 enclosed composting facilities of the type made by New Earth will be needed in the UK. His company is hoping to build about 50 plants, and is attracting the interest of councils with particularly challenging Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme targets.
He said: “We can now compete with landfill on economic grounds now, once a plant is built, but LATS targets are also underpinning which authorities need this kind of plant.”
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