Previously, all this waste ended up in landfill the place it rotted and launched damaging greenhouse gases like methane.
In the present day nonetheless, we’re getting higher at recycling it. And meals waste is being made into compost and biofuel proper right here in north-east Scotland.
Whether or not you don’t end your meal in a restaurant, cook dinner an excessive amount of spaghetti or just have plenty of peels and pips from fruit and greens, we’re all contributing to meals waste a technique or one other.
Within the north and north-east, one in every of two issues will occur to your meals scraps: They may both be become compost, or they are going to be become biofuel.
It’s because all meals waste isn’t equal, as Andrew Gerlach from Keenan Recycling explains.
“There are two essential sorts of meals waste; you get packaged waste like meals from supermarkets and also you get compostable waste, which covers issues like biodegradable espresso cups,” he mentioned.
It’s all gathered collectively at Keenan Recycling’s multi-million pound facility in New Deer, and that is the place the magic occurs.
Compostable waste is separated from meals and shredded earlier than being saved for a number of weeks till it’s “matured”.
After a number of weeks the combo could have remodeled into natural compost which is accredited by official our bodies and bought to close by landowners.
“The farmers like it,” mentioned Andrew. “It enhance their yields with no damaging impacts and it’s miles higher for the surroundings than chemical fertilisers.”
The leftover meals scraps in the meantime are blended up into an enormous soup, “although not a soup of the day thoughts you,” Andrew mentioned. “That is what we name biofuel.”
Biofuel is a renewable vitality supply which captures the pure methane gases launched by rotting meals.
As soon as these gases are captured, they’re generally known as biogas and can be utilized for electrical energy, gasoline to grid and family heating.
The leftover meals pulp is then used as crop fertiliser.
It may be smelly, soiled work, however its work which is changing into more and more vital for the surroundings.
