Kitchen waste collections take root in North of England

Working closely with Lancashire county council, collections of biodegradable kitchen waste will be provided to 7,500 households in the Deepdale, Adelphi and North Maudlands areas.

Cllr Hazel Harding of Lancashire county council with Tony Martin, chair of the Lancashire Environmental Fund (right) and Adrian Phillips, assistant director of works, Preston city council launching the Ingol in-vessel facility

The areas are dominated by Victorian terraced housing that has not been suitable for collecting green waste for composting.

Householders in the area have already been provided with a kitchen caddy in which to put food waste and a larger container to keep outside. Collections will be run once a week, with collected material treated using New Zealand vertical composting technology from Orr-Tec, designed and constructed by VCU Technology.

Funding for the project has come from the Landfill Tax Credits Scheme via the Lancashire Environmental Fund and SITA UK.

The new in-vessel facility at the Ingol household waste recycling centre on Tom Benson Way, Preston, was opened on Thursday by Cllr Hazel Harding, leader of Lancashire county council.

Important
Cllr Harding said: “Kitchen waste can produce harmful greenhouse gasses in landfill sites and the new facility is an important step towards reducing the total amount of waste Lancashire sends to landfill, in line with government targets.”

Preston's executive member for environment and sustainability, Cllr John Swindells, said: “This project gives the residents of Preston the opportunity to taken part in a ground breaking scheme that will help their local environment.”

The Ingol facility uses council-collected green waste as a bulking agent to help with the composting of the kitchen waste over a seven-day period. The process meets the animal by-product regulation requirements, heating material up to 70 degrees to help avoid health risks.

The unit has the annual capacity of 1300 tonnes of mixed food and green waste, with an output of approx 850 tonnes of compost. After this, material is taken to the Clifton Marsh composting facility to be matured into finished compost.

It is hoped that the finished compost will be used in Preston’s parks and green spaces in the area.