The amount of food waste sent for recycling by Devon businesses has more than doubled in 18 months according to new figures from Andigestion, the county’s food waste recycling provider.
Since the launch of its Wheelie Bin Service at the end of 2016, the number of businesses signing up to the firm’s food waste recycling service has increased steadily with the company now processing on average 3,500 bins per month. This rise in demand has also led to major investment in tripling the fleet of collection vehicles and the recruitment of more drivers.
“Our Wheelie Bin Service has really taken off over the last year or so, with more and more businesses across the county playing a major role in reducing the amount of food waste going to landfill,” said Mike Lowe, Operations Director at Andigestion.
Businesses such as restaurants, pubs, hotels and leisure venues, as well as schools and colleges, can now significantly reduce their environmental impact and improve their carbon footprint simply by sending all their food waste for recycling at Andigestion’s Holsworthy plant near Bude – the UK’s first ‘food only’ anaerobic digestion facility which annually recycles approximately 76,000 tonnes of the county’s food waste.
“Customers can place food directly into our bins, whether packaged or unpackaged, cooked or uncooked,” explains Mike. “We can also take peelings, out of date food, plate scrapings, damaged stock, frozen or chilled foods.”
Businesses also benefit from the Wheelie Bin Exchange – Andigestion’s promise to swap the full food waste bin for a fresh, steam-cleaned bin every time it’s collected, to help keep premises clean and hygienic with no mess, smells or liners for customers to worry about.
Holsworthy’s anaerobic digestion process produces clean, green and eco-friendly electricity which is fed back into the national grid to supply around 10,000 local homes. The ‘digestate’ by-product of the process – a mineral-rich, liquid fertiliser – is used by local farmers as a sustainable alternative to carbon-intensive chemical fertilisers.
“This is the perfect solution for those businesses wishing to tackle food waste, reduce landfill and improve their eco-credentials, and we’re delighted that the scheme has received such an enthusiastic response.”
The Wheelie Bin Service is said to be ideal for small to medium-sized businesses producing from 20kg and up to I tonne of food waste per week.
