Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has bought an A900 Rocket Composter from food waste equipment manufacturer Tidy Planet to process its on-site food and garden waste.
For use at AstraZeneca’s 100-acre manufacturing site in Macclesfield, the three-quarter tonne composter will process 24 tonnes of food and garden waste a year.
Food waste is generated at the on-site restaurant, while the green waste is from landscaping activity on the site grounds.
It is the first commercial-scale composter to be installed on an AstraZeneca site and forms part of the organisation’s wider sustainability target to reduce waste. The company also aims to achieve zero-carbon status at its campus by 2025.
The Rocket composter will process 24 tonnes of food and garden waste a year
Composting process
Food and garden waste is treated using a maceration shredder before being fed into the composter.
The waste is then fed into the In-Vessel composter by hand, with a handful of wood chips.
The material is moved into an insulated cylinder that contains shafts and paddles to turn the material around every two hours.
Fresh materials can be fed into the composter every day, with the resulting compost being ready around 14 days later. It has the capacity to process 500 kilos of organic waste per week.
AstraZeneca’s horticultural team will use the resulting compost across the site, with plans to grow fresh food.
Huw Crampton, sales manager at Tidy Planet which is alos based in Macclesfield, said: “It’s great to be working with a fellow local company, helping to harness its resource potential, and cut down carbon emissions associated with off-site waste transportation.”
‘Composter champion’
FM development manager at AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield site, Guy Camm, said that further down the line the company aims to make the compost available for employees to take home with them.
Mr Camm said: “We’re deeply committed to making our campus more sustainable, and we want to be best-in-class for how we handle our food and green waste. Installing an on-site composter seemed like a great fit for us, as by recycling our food and green waste at source, we can create a closed loop model that reduces both wastage and our carbon footprint.”
“We’re also working with our catering supplier to ensure all our takeaway cups and tableware are compostable, to make sure our approach is a truly holistic one.”
The post AstraZeneca installs composter at Macclesfield site appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
