Organic Waste Solutions, a company specializing in sustainable waste management, has recently announced that it is processing an estimated 9,000 tonnes of household food waste per year from Durham County Council. The company is converting county-wide collections into renewable energy and agricultural bio-fertiliser.
Durham County Council has launched a household food waste collection program across the county, with Organic Waste Solutions handling around half of the collected material at their Wardley Anaerobic Digestion facility on the outskirts of Gateshead. This amounts to approximately 9,000 tonnes of food waste annually, which is being converted into renewable energy to power up to 10,000 homes in the North East. This initiative not only helps to produce renewable energy but also diverts waste from traditional disposal methods, such as Energy from Waste facilities.
This partnership was formed in response to new legislation that requires all English local authorities to provide food waste collection services to their households. Durham County Council is among the first councils in the region to implement this new duty, with collections now underway county-wide.
The food waste collected from County Durham residents is transported to the Wardley facility, where anaerobic digestion breaks down organic material to produce two outputs: biogas, which is injected directly into the National Grid as a renewable energy source, and digestate, a nutrient-rich bio-fertiliser used to grow future crops. This creates a complete circular economy loop where food waste is returned to the food chain.
Harry Tomlinson, Commercial Manager at Organic Waste Solutions, expressed his appreciation for Durham County Council’s commitment to this partnership. He also highlighted the potential benefits of treating food waste as a resource rather than a disposal problem, stating, “what the figures show is the genuine scale of what becomes possible when local authorities treat food waste as a resource rather than a disposal problem.”
Cllr Kyle Genner, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, environment, and police relations, also shared his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “This partnership will support our growing demand for energy and bring tangible benefit to our economy and farmers. We’re always on the lookout for great partnerships to help us deliver for residents, and we’re hopeful that’s what this partnership will prove to be.”
With the Wardley facility’s capacity to process and convert food waste at this scale, Organic Waste Solutions is well-positioned to be a key partner for local authorities across the North East as the new statutory collections duty takes effect nationwide.
