General Waste Reduction

Food Waste Segregation

Ashlee Savage

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General Waste

General Waste

•The Green Fence effect came in to effect at the beginning of 2013. This has filtered down the supply chain to us which means we cannot send our poorly segregated plastic to China. This has led to much of the plastic being mixed with General Waste and sent to incineration rather than being recycled.

•While investigations are being made into the plastic recycling issues, we need to investigate other means to reduce our overall general waste.

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General Waste

•From July 2012- 2013 our general waste totalled 92.6 tonnes (blue bars). This was while one container a month was being sent for incineration.•This cost £12,800 a year.•The average cost per tonne (including container rental and transport) between July 2012 and July 2013 comes to £186

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78

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General waste for incineration (tonne)

July 2012-July 2013July 2013-Now

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General waste for incineration (tonne)

July 2012-July 2013July 2013-Now

General Waste

•As the graph shows, from September 2013 the general waste increased due to plastics, which were otherwise recycled, being sent to incineration (Red bars).•This has led to increased costs as two containers are being sent to incineration per month rather than just the one.

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General Waste

•In February 2013,after a week long visit at Ricoh, a report was produced by Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). This report summarised the results regarding waste in the kitchen/catering areas at Ricoh.•Table 1 shows the total kitchen waste per year split into categories of avoidable food waste and unavoidable food waste.

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From these results it is estimated that 4.6% of the Total General Waste volume on RPL site is accountable as food waste from the Canteen facilities.

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Anaerobic Digestion

Anaerobic Digestion

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• Anaerobic digestion is widely regarded as the most sustainable method of disposal of biodegradable waste.

• 100% of the waste is utilised. Gases are used to generate energy and residue is used as fertiliser on fields.

• Through doing this it is possible to create a carbon footprint saving of 0.5 to 1.0 tonne of CO2 equivalent per tonne of food waste.

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Owner: [Insert name]

Organic

Waste

Sorting and shredding

Screening Digestion Tanks

Digestate

Farm

Generator

Electricity and heat

Supply to campus and grid

Bioga

s

Flowchart showing the process from

Waste to energy

Anaerobic Digestion

Anaerobic Digestion

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This table shows the constituents of Food waste in which are accepted by Cartwrights and “Harper Adams Energy”.

These products are the main

constituents of our general waste and are permitted by Harper Adams.

These products are not permitted in any of the waste sent off to Anaerobic Digestion. As a relatively small

facility we do not handle these anyway.

This specifies no copy, laminated or printer paper. However, paper towels and biodegradable tissue papers are permitted.

The Benefits

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1.Cost

• We are currently paying £138.50 per tonne of waste sent for incineration with Heat Recovery. When including the transport and container hire this amounts to £186 per tonne.

• Costs for Anaerobic digestion are lower at £50 +VAT per tonne. This is including transport and 240ltr wheelie bin hire.

The Benefits

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Incineration Anaerobic Digestion

Process cost £138.50 per tonne £12 per 240 ltr bin

Container hire £1.50 per day Included in process cost

Transport/ pickups

£216.27 twice monthly Weekly pickup included in process cost

Total cost per tonne

£186* £50

Cost Breakdown

* One container hold 5.5 tonnes

The Benefits

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2. Key Fundamentals 4 & 5 (Environment and CSR)

• Possible net savings of 960kg CO2 equivalent per tonne of food waste. (4281.6kg per year)

• Carbon Dioxide and methane products are prevented from entering the environment therefore cannot contribute to Global Warming.

• Leftover residue is used on local fields to promote growth and production.

• Electricity and Heat products are put back on the grid to fuel local homes and businesses.

• This is a closed loop system as 100% of the Waste is recycled into useable products.

The Logistics

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• After an initial one-off delivery charge of £20 for the clearly marked 240 ltr “Food Waste” bin it is collected once a week and the bin hire is included in the cost.

• Each collection is provided with a duty of care waste transfer note, weighed and recorded for our documentation.

• If contamination occurs other than tissue paper and paper towels then the bin will be returned to us. This means segregation rules have to be created and managed and waste streams mapped and managed by the Recycling centre.

In Conclusion

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Although segregating Food Waste will not solve the problem of ever increasing volume of General Waste due to plastics, it will alleviate some pressure and improve the situation.

Costs of Anaerobic Digestion are much lower than Incineration and the environmental impact is considerably lessened.

If we decide to switch to Anaerobic Digestion we can make a total yearly saving of around £590.

In addition to this we could make a net saving of 4281.6kg CO2 equivalent. This is an important step in demonstrating the Ricoh Way (KF4).

This process has been benchmarked through the BESST group and has been proven to work in other organisations such as Lyreco.