In-vessel composter achieves PAS 100 certification

Fairfield Materials Management are a social enterprise group, based at the New Smithfield Market in Manchester and one of the first in-vessel composters in the country to achieve the Composting Association's PAS100 standard this summer.

The six-chamber vertical composting unit used by Fairfield Materials Management now produces PAS100-certified compost

Since 2003, the facility has processed about 6,300 tonnes of fruit and vegetable-based waste from the market, but the in-vessel plant does not process meat or foods containing animal by-products.

Fairfield said it was “up in the clouds” when it achieved the accreditation, which has provided customers with confidence in the use of its compost, as Fairfield can now guarantee product consistency.

Emma Smith, one of Fairfield's managing directors, told letsrecycle.com today that the company has now turned around the New Smithfield Market's poor record of wasting organic fruit, flower and vegetables.

She said: “Over the last three years we have succeeded in diverting 99.8% of trade waste from landfill and we have set a zero waste target on the New Smithfield site by the end of 2006.”

Ms Smith explained that Fairfield's application for the PAS100 had taken some time to achieve. She said: “There was lots of paper work aimed at windrow composters, which wasn't applicable for an in-vessel composter. We hope
that now The Composting Association has gone through the application with us, other in-vessel composters will find the process easier.”

Ms Smith added that the group is now designing computer software to show other markets how a system like Fairfield's can achieve a zero waste target in a minimum time frame.

WRAP
The Manchester group has benefited from a 1 million investment from WRAP – the Waste and Resources Action Programme – and the Adventure Capital Fund amongst others over the last three years which has enabled them to build six Vertical Composting Units (VCUs) on their site. The plant uses New Zealand technology from supplier VCU Europa.

Fairfield is looking to build on the success by introducing another in-vessel scheme to Greater Manchester – by constructing another 12 vessel system to deal with commercial food wastes. They hope to roll this project out over the next two years but they are still in the development stages.

This week has seen WRAP seeking commercial users of compost to try out compost certified under the PAS 100 standard. The market development organisation hopes horticulture and agriculture businesses using the compost will be able to spread the word about the benefits of compost made from organic waste (see letsrecycle.com story).