The county council has agreed a one-year contract with local firm TEG Environmental to take over the composting of food waste from 7,500 homes in the city.
 TEG's silo cage composting system at Sherdley Farm in Preston, which is to process some of the collected food waste |
The trial service won the Best Local Authority Recycling Initiative at last year's Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management (see letsrecycle.com story) for composting 400 tonnes of food waste in its first year.
TEG will take over from SITA UK, which has been taking the organic waste at its Ingol site.
The new contract will see TEG composting up to 10,000 tonnes of waste a week at its in-vessel composting facility at Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and at its expanded plant at Sherdley Farm in Preston.
Preston council hopes this will enable it to roll out food waste collections across the city.
David Stowe, food waste recycling project officer for the Preston city council, said: “This trial has been a tremendous success with local householders, who are envied by those outside the trial area. Switching to TEG gives us the opportunity to look at expanding the service to other areas.”
TEG Chief Executive Mick Fishwick added: “We are delighted to have secured a further Local Authority contract and particularly one with our own County Council in Lancashire. We hope that with our forthcoming expansion at Sherdley Farm, plus additional capacity provided at our Todmorden plant, we can offer the Council the capacity to expand the scope in the coming months and years.”
Collection
Under the two-year-old food waste collection trial, residents in Preston collect their food waste in kitchen caddies lined with biodegradable cornstarch bags before transferring them to an outside 25 litre bin. The food is then collected by Preston city council on a weekly basis using a specially designed 7.5 tonne vehicle.
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TEG, which recently was named as the in-vessel composting partner for Viridor and Laing's bid for the long-term waste management contract in Manchester (see letsrecycle.com story) will treat the waste using its own silo cage in-vessel in-vessel composting technology, which is compliant with the Animal By Product Regulations.
Mr Fishwick said: “While it is initially a relatively small contract, the collection trial conducted by the council is widely regarded as innovative and very successful.”
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