by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A state-of-the-art plant at Cumbernauld which transforms food waste into renewable electricity and heat was officially declared operational on September 28, 2010 by Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead.
The Deerdykes facility, created by Scottish Water Horizons, the public utility’s commercial and renewable energy business, is the largest organic recycling facility in Scotland and the first site in the UK to combine anaerobic digestion and in-vessel composting.
Food waste is digested in the plant and can be converted into 8,000 megawatt hours of ‘green’ energy each year - enough electricity to power up to 2,000 homes.
Mr Lochhead said: “In Scotland, we produce around two million tonnes of food waste each year. Preventing household food waste alone going to landfill is the equivalent of taking a staggering one in four cars off Scottish roads.
“As part of our Zero Waste Plan, we aim to recycle 70 per cent of all waste by 2025, with just five per cent landfilled. As well as encouraging the reduction and recycling of waste, a zero waste society is about transforming it into a valuable resource. The new Deerdykes anaerobic digestion plant can process 30,000 tonnes of food waste each year, producing enough electricity to power up to 2,000 homes.
“This is a greatly impressive facility and I congratulate Scottish Water Horizons for being at the forefront of organic recycling and renewable energy. I am confident that facilities such as Deerdykes – the largest in operation in Scotland – will make a significant contribution to a zero waste Scotland.”
Mr Chris Banks, Scottish Water’s Commercial Director and Chairman of Horizons, said: “This new plant shows we’re leading the way not just on renewable energy but in helping Scotland towards its ambition of zero waste. As environmental and recycling targets become even tighter we expect others will follow the lead of Scottish Water Horizons.”
30,000 tons of food waste a year
The state-of-the art Anaerobic Digestion facility at Deerdykes, the site of a former waste-water treatment works, can handle 30,000 tonnes of food waste each year. The anaerobic digestion process breaks down the waste to produce biogas which can then be used to provide electricity to power the works itself with surplus offered to the National Grid or exported directly to local businesses.
The plant also produces heat which could be used in district heating schemes for local homes and businesses in the Cumbernauld area.
The process also creates nutrient rich digestate which can be used as a fertilizer to improve the Scotland's soil, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers whose manufacture has a significant environmental impact.
Helping Scotland towards zero waste
The Deerdykes Composting & Organics Recycling Facility at Cumbernauld was initially used to turn garden waste into compost, primarily converting local authority collections into environmentally friendly 'pod' compost.
The facility benefited from a £1.7million grant from Zero Waste Scotland. Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland, said:
"Anaerobic digestion has a huge role to play in creating a zero waste economy in Scotland, generating jobs and revenue from materials which we have always thought of as waste. Scottish Water Horizons should be congratulated for leading the way with this development.
"Scotland's Zero Waste Plan is clear that organic waste, from food and other sources, should be recycled back into useful products which can, for example, help Scottish farmers grow food crops in a proper 'closed loop' approach. With anaerobic digestion there is an extra benefit of producing gas which can be used for sustainable heat or power. By supporting projects like this, Zero Waste Scotland aims to drive a huge increase in anaerobic digestion and composting."
Scottish Water Horizons is also assessing the production of biomethane from biogas at Deerdykes. The intention is that this sustainable vehicle fuel would be used by Scottish Water's fleet.
Reading the figure of 30,000 tons of waste food that the plant can handle a year one can but wonder how many tons in fact are wasted and dumped annually, primarily in landfill sites. The mind just boggles here.
And, we all know, I am sure, that much of that food would not need to be wasted. Some of it is wastage in transit, we know that, but others is wastage in the form of fruit and veg with a little blemish here or there that greengrocers and supermarkets remove from their deliveries as they believe, and rightly so, often, that customers will not buy those.
Years ago market traders and greengrocers would give away such fruit and vegetables to those that were poorer than the rest and people gladly accepted them. Today they are no longer permitted to do so, whether on markets or in shops. That is why we have so much food waste.
I addition to that there is the fact that so many people today can no longer cook from scratch and also have no idea of how to use leftovers. Thus stuff ends up in the bin. A sad state of affairs.
© 2010
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