Winners in a recent campaign to encourage locals to recycle their food waste have been given the chance to see for themselves what happens to their food recycling after it is collected.
Some of the Bath and North East Somerset and Bristol winners in the government funded Feed Me and Win campaign got to visit the anaerobic digestion plant run by GENeco in Avonmouth, part of Wessex Water, which turns food waste into energy and fertiliser.
The Feed Me and Win campaign ran from July 2015 until March 2016 across the districts for Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol City, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Councils, and gave 200 rewards at random to residents who were found to be recycling food.
All winners received either a shopping voucher or the option to make a donation to charity.
The winners who were able to attend the GENeco tour were shown around by Business Development Manager Julian Okoye, who showed them how the plant recycles their food using anaerobic digestion – a natural process that occurs in the absence of oxygen and breaks food down into fertiliser and biomethane gas.
The plant then not only uses this gas to put electricity back into the grid, but uses it to power vehicles including the Bio-Bug Volkswagen Beetle car and the Bio-Bus, which both run entirely off of human and food waste.
Councillor Martin Veal (Conservative, Bathavon North), Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “It’s essential that everyone understands the importance of food recycling and it’s great that GENeco were able to give our campaign winners such a fascinating insight into how their food waste is used to create energy.
“We launched the brilliant Feed Me and Win campaign to encourage people stop sending their food waste to landfill and to do their bit to recycle as much as possible and help the environment.
“The results are due to be released in the coming weeks but early indications show that we’ve seen an increase in food recycling and I look forward to seeing this trend continue.”
Gillian Douglas, Interim Service Director for Clean and Green at Bristol City Council, said: “The Feed Me and Win scheme offered people a real incentive to commit to food recycling and I look forward to seeing the results of the project.
“We have come a long way in the city and most residents now recycle some of their food waste, but around 25% of waste in the average household black bin is food, so there is still a lot of work to do. As a council we are working hard to reduce our waste and aiming to increase re-use and recycling rates.
“Recycling your food has real value, as it can provide a great source of renewable energy, and can benefit the environment through significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions.”
Rosalind and Colin, Bath and North East Somerset winners, said: “We would just like to say thank you for a very informative visit to the GENeco food waste plant.
“So often today we use items and never give a thought as to how it is made or what it can be turned into. We were blessed with good weather which made the day even more enjoyable.”
Janice, a Bristol City Council winner, said: “Our trip to the food recycling plant was fantastic and interesting. We could never imagine before what happens to food and what it ends up as.”
The campaign ended on 18th March 2016 and the results will be published in the coming weeks.
To find out more about how food is recycled visit www.feedmeandwin.co.uk/how-is-food-recycled.
