Collection service is food for thought

AN East Yorkshire recycling and refuse management firm has launched a food waste collection service to help businesses cut landfill costs.

Wastewise, based in Willerby with parent company Biowise, can help local organisations to boost their green credentials by recycling their organic rubbish.

In the last decade landfill costs have risen each year by about £8 per tonne to £38 per tonne and rising.

The new Wastewise service uses a refuse collection vehicle with separate compartments for food and dry recyclables.

The dry recyclables, such as paper and plastic, are taken to Wastewise's recycling plant on Bankside in Hull.

Here, materials are sorted and baled then sent to be reused in paper mills and factories.

The food waste is taken to a plant near York and converted into highly-nutritious compost which is sold for agricultural, horticultural and landscaping use.

Paul Landau, director of Wastewise, said: "In the last 10 years the costs for land fill have been going up.

"For more and more businesses the cost of sending waste to land fill is prohibitive.

"The other problem with leaving food waste in landfill is that when it rots it produces a lot of methane and CO2 which, unless it is captured and used, is just going back into the atmosphere and adding to the greenhouse gas problem.

"When we started composting we went to businesses and said we can help you save money and do good for the environment because you are recycling it."

The firm received £15,000 funding from CO2Sense Yorkshire which helped them purchase the £20,000 specialist collection vehicle.

Andy Hartley, operations director of CO2Sense Yorkshire, said: "Yorkshire businesses send around half a million tonnes of food waste to landfill each year.

"By collecting this waste separately for processing, a valuable soil improver or renewable energy can be produced."

One of the first customers to sign up for the service was BP, via Veolia Environmental Services.

BP operates a canteen at its Saltend chemical plant which provides 500 meals per day generating a large amount of waste.

Russell Cannel, spokesman for Veolia, said: "The food waste collection service from Wastewise will help BP to achieve its aim of zero waste to landfill whilst saving money."

Wastewise are also in discussions to roll out the service with a number of other large organisations in the area.

The service can benefit a range of local businesses such as restaurants and cafes, hotels, hospitals, schools, supermarkets, residential homes and large food factories.

Last year Wastewise's parent company Biowise were granted planning permission by East Riding Council to build a state-of-the-art In-Vessel Composting Facility (IVC), at their Willerby site.

At full capacity the IVC will divert 60,000 tonnes of organic waste from landfill per year saving approximately 46,000 tonnes of CO2.

This is the equivalent to taking 16,000 cars off the road.

The firm hope to have the IVC up and running by the end of March next year when it will take over from the composting site near York.

Mr Landau said: "The York facility is a good one, but there is a need for another facility in this area and we are hoping to provide this."