Don't landfill your waste with so much haste

A waste handling solution for the UK food manufacturing industry not only removes the need to landfill food and non-recyclable packaging, but also provides energy recovery direct to the manufacturer

As food manufacturing in the UK grows to new levels due to the western cultures growing reliance on ready meals and pre made foods, one UK company have developed a solution, which not only removes the need to landfill one of the most difficult waste streams, food and non-recyclable packaging, but also provides energy recovery direct to the manufacturer.

Over the past decade consumption of ready meals and pre-made foods has gone through an explosive period of growth.

Although this has led to excellent turnover levels for the companies producing these goods it has created a new problem; food waste and non-recyclable packaging waste.

Food waste encompasses surplus stock, "out of date" ingredients, animal by products and contaminated packaging and pose a difficult problem to food producers.

Because of the very nature of the waste until now options for processing it have been very limited.

The reason for the problem is that all the historical methods available such as rendering, anaerobic digestion and composting cannot handle this mixed waste stream.

This resulted in the only cost effective option being to landfill it.

However, spiralling landfill costs and government targets on waste minimisation mean that this is no longer an acceptable option.

Some seven million tonnes of food and non-recyclable packaging waste are produced each year in the UK by large food producers.

It is only in recent years when environmental issues have come into the spotlight that such companies have begun to actively seek out an alternative to landfill.

Landfill restrictions and active encouragement from the government has prompted these companies to engage in extensive recycling schemes with many now recycling all their un-contaminated packaging and cardboard.

But this alone is not enough.

To elaborate on the reasons why historical methods are not suitable we must look at each of them in more depth.

Rendering, a common approach to animal by product (ABP) waste, dries and separates the fat from the bones and proteins.

Although a suitable method for ABP waste rendering only has the ability to handle this waste.

Packaging and other forms of waste cannot be processed by this method, meaning it has limited applications.

It is also among one of the most expensive methods of waste disposal available to manufacturers.

Anaerobic digestion is also a viable solution for waste of an organic nature, but because the process is based on natural decomposition and microbes it cannot easily cope with changes in waste composition.

Changes can have detrimental effects on the process, in some cases meaning an entire feedstock has to be disposed of in an alternative method due to the microbes not adapting to the change of the organic makeup of the waste.

Again this poses the problem of only being able to deal with food waste and doesn't cater for the packaging waste.

The other option which is often used is that of composting.

Similar to anaerobic digestion in process this option can also only handle organic waste.

It is quite a slow process, with composting often taking as long as 20 days to convert the waste into compost.

Although once off site this is not an issue for the food producers it means there is limited capacity within the composting facilities and so only set amounts of waste can be processed.

The resulting compost is effectively land filled anyway, just on top of the land instead of in a hole.

It is obviously significantly better in compost form than original waste form, but it still results in large amount of methane being produced which could be avoided.

However, these methods do have their place in the overall picture of waste handling and should not be shelved completely.

They also produce by products which can be used for energy recovery.

Typically this is methane gas which is produced as part of the natural decomposition of the waste.

This gas is then burned in order to produce energy, but the quantities are seldom enough to power anything apart from the plant itself.

It should also be noted that methane gas is a greenhouse gas and is contributing significantly to global warming.

But it is their inability to handle the mixed waste of packaging and food waste that is their major shortcoming.

This still leaves the headache of how to dispose of the un-recyclable packaging, of which millions of tonnes are produced each year.

But now there is a solution which can cater for this waste stream.

Inetec, a South Wales based company have developed a process which looks set to fulfil the needs of food producers by providing them with a sustainable system suitable for both food waste and non recyclable packaging waste.

This process, which has recently been recognised as a novel technology, is a mechanical process which breaks the waste down and produces an inert biomass fuel, called Food Derived Fuel or FDF for short, as a by product of the process.

It works by using a process called "abrasive drying".

The mixed waste is transferred into a vessel where it is macerated by a series of paddles.

As it is being churned it is gently heated from underneath.

The mixture of physical abrasion and heat initially exposes surface moisture and then after around 4 hours of processing cellular level moisture.

This is evaporated off as a vapour and is then condensed back into liquid for treatment or disposal to a foul sewer.

The resulting FDF has a high calorific, or energy value, of around 6-8KW hours per kilogram.

To put this into perspective wood is around 40% lower.

This stable biomass fuel can then be used for energy recovery.

In small scale applications it is often used as part of the processing installation on client sites.

It is typically used to generate steam or hot water by replacing the existing boiler requirements of the factory, thus displacing external energy requirements.

Because the high calorific value of the fuel it can result in huge cost savings to the company.

The cost saving comes from both the eradication of landfill costs and the offset cost of energy recovery.

All that is required is around 230m of space on your site.

Housed in this area would be complete loading system, an Inetec unit to process the waste and an energy recovery system which is then linked back into your factory for supplying the created energy.

Installing a system like this means that your company also becomes eligible for ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates) which can be used to further reduce your energy costs.

These are a hot topic at present and with government requirements for companies to generate around 10% of their energy on-site over the coming years this solution could redefine the way companies produce their power.

Although installations of this type are expensive, at around GBP1 million per site, due to the reduction in energy costs and the eradication of landfill expenses it is likely that a complete payback on the installation would be achieved inside two years.

This will obviously vary depending on the amount of waste you are producing on a daily basis but around four tonnes of waste per day would result in a payback period of this speed.

When you look at the long term picture of food waste handling it is products like these which will redefine the way this challenging waste stream is dealt with.

With the continued increase in landfill tax, which has recently risen by GBP3 per tonne and looks set to increase by larger amounts over the coming years, this solution offers a long term sustainable cost reduction future for your business leaving you to invest the money you've saved into overall business growth and increased quality levels.

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