The company, which opened one of the UK's largest in-vessel composting plants just over a year ago, was forced to suspend activities temporarily in September because of odour problems.
” The occasional odour issue has unfortunately upset a few local residents.“
– Martin Grundon, West London Composting
Odours had been blamed on consignments of commercial food waste taken in, which were abandoned as a result (see letsrecycle.com story).
Efforts to improve relations with the local community have now been bolstered with the new Airborne 10 system, which should absorb odours from the 50,000 tonnes of organic waste processed at the plant each year.
Patience
Martin Grundon, managing director of WLC said: “The occasional odour issue has unfortunately upset a few local residents. We would like to thank people for their patience and understanding whilst we have been ironing out a few teething problems during our first year in business.”
WLC still processes food waste collected from households in the boroughs of Hillingdon, Harrow and Brent as well as nearby Hertfordshire county council and Spelthorn borough council.
The company's process sees kitchen and garden waste treated in one of eight vessels in a controlled environment for a period of seven to 11 days, including two days at a temperature of 60 degrees centigrade. This process is then repeated before material is matured in an open windrow facility for up to 10 weeks.
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