As local authorities come under increased pressure to introduce kitchen waste collections, The Waste Paper looks at community groups already operating good practice biowaste schemes

According to the Waste and Resource Action Programme, food waste forms around 19 per cent of the average household's bin waste by weight, leading to approximately 3.3 million tonnes being thrown away each year in the UK - equivalent to 15 million tonnes of CO2. This is despite 90 per cent of us describing the amount we throw away as "some", "a little", "hardly any" or "none". Until recently, this has been buried in landfill where it is left to emit methane and other greenhouse gases, but in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion (AD) options are now opening up and with that comes more opportunities for community groups to tap into the wet waste market.

The food waste challenge is one that the Community Composting Network is hoping its members will rise to. "Once you have the food waste it can be used in incredibly useful ways. By composting it, the nutrients and the organic matter can be returned to our land, which desperately needs it," says Nick McAllister, Coordinator of the Community Compost Network.

"If the food waste goes to anaerobic digestion, as recommended in the new Waste Strategy for England, not only will there be a valuable way of recycling nutrients to our soil, in addition the methane will be collected in a controlled manner and can be used to fuel vehicles or as a means to generate electricity."

In the West of England, the Somerset Waste Partnership - consisting of the six local authorities in Somerset - has been carrying out separate weekly food waste collections, weekly recycling collections and fortnightly refuse collections since October 2004 with great results. District-wide roll outs were completed in three Somerset Districts during 2006 and the collections, known locally as SORT IT!, now serve 160,000 houses of the 230,000 across Somerset. According to Dave Mansell, Acting Waste Strategy Co-ordinator at Somerset County Council, the introduction of food waste collections has had a significant impact on other collections: "Our recycling and food waste collection contractor in Mendip, South Somerset and Taunton Deane is ECT Recycling (community sector), who are also preferred bidder for our new countywide waste collections contract commencing in October 07. Somerset's SORT IT! collections have been well received by residents and have led to district recycling rates more than doubling from 15-20 per cent to 45-48 per cent, with a quarter of this total contributed by food waste. This integrated package of waste collection services has also resulted in a reduction in total waste arisings, especially for food waste." In fact, Somerset has achieved food waste yields of 1.75 kg per household per week (90kg per household per year). What's more, by collecting garden waste separately at a cost, rather than with food waste, the garden waste is processed at a lower cost in windrows, rather than in-vessel to food waste standards and home composting has increased.

"There has been rapidly growing interest in food waste collections and many other local authorities have visited to view our collections in Somerset. This has led to a number, such as Bristol, starting their own collections," adds Mansell. "Food waste makes up about one fifth of total household waste and an even higher proportion of bin waste - in Somerset's case 27 per cent - which makes it a very good target for increasing recycling rates and achieving Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme diversion requirements. We also believe that collecting food waste weekly makes it easier to introduce fortnightly refuse collections, which in turn encourages greater recycling.

"Many are now realising these and other benefits of introducing separate weekly food waste collections, so I'm sure the number of these collections will continue to multiply. We are also learning more about the best ways to process food waste, with anaerobic digestion appearing to be a particularly well-suited technology and one we are planning to introduce in Somerset."

A number of community groups are already collecting kitchen waste with positive results elsewhere too. In Powys, Wales, Cwm Harry Land Trust is working in partnership with Powys County Council to divert the amount of waste in Newtown from landfill thanks to £750,000 in funding from Powys Zero Waste, which was by Powys County Council and additional lottery money. Taking inspiration from a successful scheme in Monza, Italy, Cwm Harry Land Trust's renamed 'Italian Newtown Job' chose to supply equipment to 3,639 of the 5,300 households at the beginning of this year matched-funded .

Adhering to the 'Monza model' of separating kitchen and garden waste and using smaller non-compacting vehicles for food waste, Cwm Harry has a convenient, cost-effective and low environmental impact collection round: its smaller vehicle can, if necessary, be operated by a single person and costs a third of a compacting vehicle.

Results from the last six months show participation levels of between 55 and 70 per cent, with the average monthly capture of 30 plus tonnes, and an average household weight per week of approximately three to four kilogrammes. What is collected is delivered to an AD plant in Ludlow.

According to Northridge, one of the most valuable lessons learned has been the importance of engaging with the community and staff throughout the planning and implementation stages: "By spending quite a bit of time recruiting and nurturing people in order for them to own the scheme, we have got results." Plans to set up a community interest company and build an AD in the town to power the local community's energy needs are now being considered. The good news for other areas in Wales thinking of introducing a separate kitchen waste collection is that recently appointed Minister for Sustainability and Rural Development in Wales, Jane Davidson, has indicated that the WAG may be willing to provide financial support specifically for food waste collection systems in the near future.

In London, Aardvark Recycling and East London Community Recycling Partnership (ELCRP) are also gaining experience in kitchen waste. ELCRP began a trial in January 2004; just six months after the Animal By-Products Regulations were published. Although the prospect of keeping your old food waste in your apartment cannot have seemed attractive, ELCRP got around this problem by using a fermentation system to slow down the inevitable putrefaction. Residents on a number of estates in East London are supplied with a 10-litre bin with a sealable lid, cornstarch biodegradable liners and a small bag of 'Bokashi' (bran inoculated with a strain of yeast). The sealable lid not only prevents flies and maggots entering the food waste, it also provides a good growing environment for the fermentation organism.

Several years on and participation rates are as high as 85 per cent. According to ELCRP, the high rates can be attributed to the work put into door knocking; meeting residents and explaining what the project was about, thereby making sure residents want and have ownership of a recycling project. "Work with and engage the community and use existing community groups," advises Jane Wilde, ELCRP Technical & Educational Outreach Officer. "Make the collection as user friendly as possible by using Effective Micro Organisms to reduce smells and pathogens. Door knock, door knock and door knock. Use all available means to advertise and inform residents about the collection scheme. Give free compost to those taking part and provide compost to local gardening groups. Employ local people, this will ensure community involvement and give you valuable local knowledge"

In the first six months of the Marks Gate scheme in East London, the average for the entire estate was 40 per cent participation, with the tonnage figure for the first quarter at 8.6 tonnes of food waste and 1.4 tonnes of cardboard. Imaginatively, supermarket trolleys, adapted for the food waste by the addition of stackable-lidded plastic boxes are the collection vehicles and need very little maintenance, parts or training. Although the capacity of the vehicles is small, it is only a short trundle back to the depot, a small one story brick building with two yards: one for the dry recyclables which are bulked up and transferred to storage by milk-float, the other is home to a large shed containing a Rocket system in-vessel composter, the maturation bays and a range of wormeries.

Over in the south of London, Aardvark Recycling, in partnership with Lambeth Council, set about collecting food and kitchen waste from 6,000 households on estates in Stockwell, Larkhall and Clapham Town last September. The organic waste is collected in biodegradable liner bags and taken to be processed and turned into compost in Stockwell. To date Aardvark Recycling has composted over 80 tonnes of kitchen food waste, not including the green waste from a local park.

Natasha Harris, Project Assistant, said: "We are very happy with the progress of the scheme. Contamination rates, especially for food waste, are very low, showing a dedication and understanding of local residents. New residents on the estates join the scheme every week, and we have received very positive feedback about the services." Lambeth resident Sidney Cole praised the scheme: "I am a Lambeth Springfield Estate resident and felt compelled to congratulate Aardvark Recycling on providing a great doorstep recycling service. I now have a visual reminder to recycle and my son and I are discovering what happens to our waste once it leaves us via the Internet. Keep up the good work!"

Elsewhere, Otters Rotters in Devon has launched a new scheme to convert kitchen waste into garden compost and methane through a combination of aerobic and anaerobic composting, after receiving funding from CRED of £123,128, Leader+, East Devon AONB Sustainable Development Fund and also the Blackdown Hills Sustainable Development Fund to provide a fortnightly kerbside collection service of garden waste for the 6,600 households of Honiton, Whimple, West Hill and Tipton St John and a weekly kitchen waste collection for 500 households of Honiton. According to the organisation: "Otter Rotters will be showing how organic waste can be dealt with safely, locally and in an environmentally friendly way; it will also result in more local jobs, reduced traffic movements and lower waste bills!"           

In the north of England, meanwhile, Offshoots Permaculture has also embraced food waste. A doorstep collection community compost scheme has been running successfully for five years. Originally collected on a solar powered milk float, the scheme has since evolved into a bigger and better project with the backing of CRED and has now upgraded to a ford transit van run on bio-fuel.

The kitchen waste is put into Rocket composting equipment with wood chip to provide the correct balance of carbon (wood chip) to nitrogen (kitchen waste) and is then stored ready to be sold back to the Borough council parks department for use within the grounds of Towneley Hall.

With 17 councils across England recently receiving funding by WRAP to provide separate weekly food waste collection trials in order to better understand the costs involved, householders' reactions and diversion rates, the time to get the biowaste out of the black bag is here.