Ipswich resumes organic waste collections

Speaking to letsrecycle.com yesterday, the authority revealed that since October 2, the Cliff Quay composting facility in south Ipswich has qualified to take food waste, excluding meat.

”With LATS targets to consider we need to be pulling as much biodegradable material as possible out of the residual waste stream “
– Barbara Moss-Taylor, Ipswich council
The 12,000 tonne-capacity in-vessel plant, which is owned by Anglian water, used to process food waste for the council between 1997 and 2003.

However, since the European Animal By-Products Regulations came into force in 2003, the plant has had to upgrade in case 10% of its feedstock is contaminated with meat.

Barbara Moss-Taylor, Ipswich's waste development manager, said: “The sticking point was that we didn't receive the waste under cover. Defra provided the money for a covered reception area, and space to keep pre- and post-production separate.”

Now Ipswich, which provides alternate weekly collections of residual waste one week and garden and dry recycling the next through an in-house scheme, will accept food waste from 42,000 brown garden waste bins.

The Suffolk authority hopes that the move will boost its 39% recycling rate, helping to divert waste from landfill.

Ms Moss-Taylor said: “Customers were very disappointed when we had to stop collecting garden waste. We've seen the effect food waste collections have on the recycling rate and with LATS targets to consider we need to be pulling as much biodegradable material as possible out of the residual waste stream.”

Compost
At the Cliff Quay facility, Ipswich's green waste is shredded, composted at 60 degrees for at least two days and then stored for 18 days, before being sold for use on agricultural land.

Kit Lees, treatment manager at the Cliff Quay plant, said: “We compost meat excluded catering waste which is basically green kitchen waste. We would require another composting phase to be able to take waste including meat, but we have no plans for further changes at the moment.”