“We’re all doing our bit for the environment.” That’s what I hear so often—and it’s certainly necessar y that we all play our part. It’s frustrating, then, to observe how cuts to my local council have led to it charging residents for the collection of green waste. This has made it more difficult for me as a farmer and a resident to do my bit.
Many people don’t realise just how valuable recycling green waste is. Nature wastes nothing, and in re-using vegetative byproducts and food waste, we mimic nature. Across our farm, we provide recycling services to humanity by spreading cattle manure and “sewage sludge” (a treated human manure!) on our crops. We can even use the watery washings from the potato cleaning that begins the process of making your chips. And I have always enjoyed the fact our green waste (lawn clippings, garden vegetation and food leftovers) is collected and processed for other farmers or gardeners to use.
Collected green waste can either be sent to a composting unit or an anaerobic digester (an “AD plant”). Composting involves allowing waste to decompose—a process which creates heat that naturally kills off unwanted bacteria and provides a highly nutritious fertiliser for soil on farms or in allotments and gardens. Waste sent to an AD plant produces a double benefit—it decomposes, and the heat is used to make electricity. And the gas given off in the decomposition flows directly into the grid. Both the solid waste and liquid waste produced are highly nutritious and great for soils. Both are spread on farmland and allow us to reduce the amount of artificial fertiliser we use. The increase in organic matter makes our soil ecosystems healthier and able to hold more water, and it helps our crops grow with fewer inputs. Here’s a fact: an increase of 1 per cent in organic matter can mean soil is able to hold over 20,000 gallons more water in every acre. We’re stopping flooding too!