Two year study aims to find best practice in composting

The Integrated Composting Programme (ICP) is a 1.5 million initiative funded by the Landfill Tax Credits Scheme via the SITA Environmental Trust and supported by the Composting Association.

The programme will involve seven different research projects across the UK, and will use the information collated to create a framework for best practice across the waste management industry and in local authorities.

John Leaver, Chairman of SITA Environmental Trust, explained: “We must develop more effective strategies for dealing with waste, and share best practice to create a more streamlined and efficient industry. The ICP is an important step towards achieving this.”

The seven composting projects will allow the ICP to focus on comparing and contrasting the different approaches to composting, and will look specifically at participation rates, collection methods, the technology used to produce the compost and end markets for composted materials.

Tony Breton, Composting Association communications manager, said: “We are pleased to support this innovative programme. It will contribute information that's needed by the industry on a variety of composting manufacturing processes.”

Projects
The composting projects in the ICP include a project examining how organic waste from retail and food outlets in Gatwick Airport terminals is collected and treated.

The programme will also look at a range of kerbside collection schemes for organic waste set up by Avon Friends of the Earth and Bath & North East Somerset council. It will assess collection methods and participation rates, using a variety of locations, households, social groups and collection regimes. The project also includes a monitoring programme to measure collection times and weights.

The ICP will investigate the use of shredded green waste composted on farms, the composting of waste at a facility in Leicestershire and a community-run in-vessel facility in Crieff, Perthshire. The Perthshire project, in partnership with Perth and Kinross District Council, will help to evaluate composting technology and different promotion approaches used to encourage public participation.

Another ICP project will evaluate the effects on soil quality when green waste compost is added to soils used in land restoration and the establishment of wildflower meadows. And, the ICP will undertake a 300-household trial on new aerobic waste containers designed by inventor Richard Rand for use in kerbside collection schemes.

The ICP is due to last two years, at the end of which a guidance manual will be produced, which will aim to give composting managers advice on the best composting system to use.