News
Composting facility to boost recycling in Herts
This feature was added on 9th August 2010
Recycling of garden, food and card waste in Hertfordshire has been given a boost with the opening of a new composting facility.
Derrick Ashley, Hertfordshire County Council's Executive Member for Waste and Chair of the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership, led an official open day event at the facility near South Mimms on Friday July 16.
The composting facility, built and operated by Agrivert under contract to Hertfordshire County Council, will receive and process more than 45,000 tonnes of mixed green garden waste, food waste and cardboard collected from residents' homes in Broxbourne, Hertsmere, St Albans, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield. The end compost is then sold to local farmers for them to use on their land. This provides 27,000 tonnes of composted materials that can be used over 3,000 acres of farmland, replacing up to £250,000 worth of artificial fertilizers.
Derrick Ashley said: 'Your county council is committed to recycling and composting, and it's essential that we make sure we have the best range of waste facilities in place to deal with all of Hertfordshire's household waste. This is our fourth in-vessel composting contract and we can now deal with more organic waste within the county, which in turn keeps our costs down.
Diverting food, garden waste and cardboard away from landfill is extremely important and residents can tangibly reduce their carbon footprint by taking advantage of the recycling schemes offered within Hertfordshire. The emissions from landfill caused by these forms of waste are so powerful that, if a household fully participates in recycling schemes, diverting this waste from landfill is the equivalent to that household reducing their car mileage by around 1,500km a year.'
For more information on Agrivert and the technology behind composting please visit www.agrivert.co.uk.