Member Article

Food waste recycling firm gets seal of approval for fertiliser

A food waste recycling plant in South Wales run by anaerobic digestion (AD) specialist Biogen has been awarded a significant industry certification for its fertiliser.

The Bryn Pica AD plant near Aberdare has been given PAS 110 accreditation for its digestate, which is produced as part of the recycling process and spread to local farmland.

The PAS 110 certification assures users that the digestate is of consistent quality and safe for use on crops.

Biogen is now the only UK AD operator with six PAS 110 certified AD plants.

The Bryn Pica facility recycles 22,500 tonnes of food waste each year collected from households by local authorities.

It also generates 1.2MW of renewable electricity for the grid, enough to power more than 2,000 homes for a year.

The PAS 110 accreditation is awarded to AD operators by the Biofertiliser Certification Scheme (BCS). It provides assurance to consumers, farmers, food producers, and retailers that the digestate produced from anaerobic digestion is safe for human, animal and plant health. It also highlights that it is fit for spreading to farmland as a replacement for chemical fertilisers.

The digestate is rich in nitrogen, potash, phosphate and other trace elements which is excellent for crop growth. One farmer who has given it the thumbs up is Farmers Weekly ‘Sheep Farmer of the Year’ Richard Roderick, owner of Newton Farm in Brecon, Powys.

He said: “We used the digestate at the end of August 2015 and were impressed with the resulting grass growth. Using the digestate instead of fertiliser should be lower cost as it is a by-product of a plant that generates energy from waste. This should make it more sustainable than oil based fertilisers.”

Julian O’Neill, Biogen’s CEO, said: “It’s great news for Biogen that the quality of the digestate at Bryn Pica has been recognised by the BCS and also that farmers appreciate the environmental and commercial value.”

Biogen worked with the 4R Group who specialise in environmental consultancy and the recycling of the digestate to farmers and landowners in the region. Jon Smith, director of 4R Group said: “Having this quality digestate available is a real boost to the local farming community and the results from using it have been very positive.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Harris .