Located in north west Leicestershire, Lount was SITA UK's first purpose designed and constructed composting facility and began composting in 1998. The facility is licensed to receive and compost up to 25,000 tonnes of green waste per year making it one of the largest composting facilities in the UK.
Since its opening, Lount has composted over 250,000 tonnes of green waste generated in Leicestershire and the surrounding area. The composting process produces a high quality 10mm grade compost that has won a number of accreditations, and is used by national retailers and on large landscaping projects through the APEX and Organo brands.
Lount employs the open windrow method of composting. Using this method, conditions are created to allow naturally occurring microbes to grow and break down the green waste over a number of weeks into finished compost.
The incoming green waste is checked for quality before being shredded and formed into windrows. The windrows create the ideal conditions for composting to occur. The windrows are turned to ensure that the microbes have sufficient air and are monitored daily for temperature and moisture to make sure that the composting process is working effectively. The composting process takes about 12 weeks after which time the windrow is screened to remove unwanted rubbish and produce the final 10mm grade high quality compost. The finished compost is independently analysed for physical, chemical and biological properties to ensure that it meets our required quality standards before being sold.
SITA UK's own quality control system, known as MASC (the Management and Auditing System for Compost), is used to ensure that quality criteria are met at every stage of the composting process.
The compost is marketed either independently under the Organo brand or through APEX of which SITA UK is a key member. Through these initiatives the compost is currently used by a wide variety of customers including J Arthur Bowers, Wye Vale Garden Centres and B&Q for national bagging and has been used on large landscaping projects including Canary Wharf and the Millennium village.
