Composting
In 2008, SITA UK produced 80,000 tonnes of compost.
Composting is the oldest form of recycling organic material and has traditionally been practised in the UK on a relatively small scale. Nationally, about one to two per cent of municipal waste is composted, amounting to an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of product.
Organic materials make up a significant part of household and most organic materials - including garden green waste, cardboard, fruits, vegetables and wood waste - can be composted.
SITA UK has a network of composting facilities treating a range of organic waste, including garden and kitchen waste and the organic fraction of mechanically separated municipal waste.
We use both traditional open windrow systems as well as the more sophisticated in-vessel composting, where environmental conditions and emissions are fully controlled to improve the effectiveness of the composting process.
In 2008, SITA UK composted around 150,000 tonnes of green waste and a further 100,000 tonnes via third parties. Another 40,000 tonnes of mechanically separated organic waste material were treated in an in-vessel composter at our mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility at Ellington in Northumberland.
All of our green waste sites are registered to the Government-backed Compost Quality Protocol that sets standards to safeguard the environment, public health and product quality and have achieved the British Standard for compost materials, BSI PAS 100.
We supply compost to a wide range of markets and have a wide range of compost products that include bio-fuels, mulch products and high-quality horticultural grade compost. Over 60 per cent of the compost produced by us in 2008 was used in the landscaping and horticultural markets, and the remainder for bio-fuel, mulch, high-grade horticultural media and agricultural soil improver.
In 2008, we expanded our collection services to include a food collection on four of our local authority contracts. We also have plans to develop three new in-vessel composters in the near future.
See how composting works and how to compost at home.
Contact us for more information.