Composting Alchemy

East Devon-based community recycling group, Otter Rotters, has launched a new scheme to convert kitchen waste into garden compost and methane gas.

The Alchemy Project will use waste collected from local households, reducing carbon emissions produced from transporting the waste further afield to be reused. The process works through a combination of aerobic and anaerobic composting, producing methane gas for fuel and high quality compost for crops. The result of a 2 year partnership between Otter Rotters and Bioplex of Andover, the project will use a Portagester system to break down the material. Compost will then be trialled for the commercial sector by local plant nursery, Trim Plants. The project is funded by Leader+, Blackdown Hills Sustainable Development Fund and East Devon Sustainable Development Fund. Grants were also provided for the scheme's development, from the Community Recycling and Economic Development (CRED) Programme, Leader+ and East Devon and Blackdown Hills' Sustainability Development Funds.

The Alchemy Project creates employment opportunities for local residents and enables smaller communities to take more responsibility for waste management, at a local level. As Carmel Wilkinson, Project Co-ordinator for Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty comments: "This technology provides a great opportunity for creating jobs locally...in a manner that befits the environment." Terry Trim of Trimplants added: "As the operations are small, individuals that participate in this scheme can feel a part of a team in helping to deal with this type of waste."

Otter Rotters has also presented an information session to over 75 surveyors, business managers, builders and local authority officers at Guys Marsh prison, near Shaftesbury. The Sustainability Event was held in conjunction with Kier Construction, which is currently building a kitchen waste recycling unit based on The Alchemy Project. Phil Foggitt, Managing Director of Otter Rotters talked about the work of the group and conducted a workshop on anaerobic digestion. The event also discussed how increasing interest in the recycling sector presents new opportunities for business, as Phil Foggitt describes: " There is now a thirst for all things "alternative" which is being fuelled by the climate change agenda. Business, as well as the statutory sector, is now very keen to take up technologies which not only work but are good for the environment as well as for the local economy."

Delegates also heard from Chris Reynell of Bioplex, on whose design The Alchemy Project was modelled, and Chris Hines from Surfers Against Sewage, who highlighted the importance of raising public awareness of environmental issues in order to exact change.