The Environment Agency has launched a new scheme to collect food waste from sites around the country and recycle it through a biomass plant where it is turned into renewable energy.

The Environment Agency will be one of the first public sector organisations to create energy from its leftover food in its new scheme whereby the food waste from 37 of the organisation’s sites, much of it fruit and vegetables, is now being collected and taken to the plant.

The participating sites create around 4.3 tonnes of food waste every month. This generates around 4.29 megawatts of renewable energy, or enough to power an average Environment Agency office for a week. It also saves 1.65 tonnes of carbon per month.

This is the latest in a series of measures the Environment Agency has taken to reduce the environmental impact of its everyday business.

More than 99 per cent of the electricity used by the Environment Agency is from renewable sources, recycling facilities are available in every office and the organisation’s green travel policy has led to a mileage reduction of over 11.2 million miles in three years. It has also managed to cut its overall carbon footprint by 14 per cent and its water use by 10 per cent in two years.

Graham Ledward, director of resources at the Environment Agency, said: “It is vitally important that we set an example when it comes to the environmental impacts of our day to day business activities. This new food waste scheme will divert waste from landfill and help to create more renewable energy.

“We put the environment at the heart of everything we do. It is important that we help set new standards on environmental performance and show public and private sector organisations not only that it can be done, but that it can be cost effective.”

From: http://www.freshinfo.com/index.php?ei=h&fiemt=10022009061564075110&s=n&ss=nd&sid=48825

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed