Rennison Writes

This century, rarely a week has gone by in Britain without some apocalyptic news headline telling us that our environment is doomed. There is no shortage of scientists, think tanks or eco-warriors clamouring to tell people that not enough is being done to save the planet.

 

A mere three years ago, Cardiff was often pointed to in such cases, on account of its abysmal recycling rate: just 8.19% for 2005-6, the lowest figure for any Welsh council.

           

Yet now the capital provides one of the few success stories to balance out the doom mongers, having more than trebled its recycling in only 36 months. And this year will see Cardiff Council make one last big push to hit the 40% target rate needed to avoid the severe landfill fines due to be introduced in 2010.

 

Leading this charge is the city’s new food composting scheme – one of only a handful in the UK, and which, after a shaky start, is becoming part of everyday life.

 

October saw 140,000 homes in Cardiff receive their green food waste caddies, to be put out once a week for collection. The composting company Vital Earth has been put in charge of running the scheme, and its managing director Steve Harper took a moment to describe how the process works. 

 

“Cardiff Council collects household food waste; this is taken to Cardiff’s transfer station at Lamby Way where it is bulked up and shipped to our site,” he explains.

 

“In simplified terms, once arrived the waste is then decontaminated of stuff like glass, plastics, etc; it’s then shredded, before going into a bio-filter to be filtered then heated. In there it has to pass DEFRA regulations, and is then allowed to sit for six weeks, and after rigorous final testing it is either sold as domestic or commercial compost depending on its size.”

 

The scheme soon hit problems, however, as a shake-up in Cardiff’s refuse collection services to incorporate the new food composting led to a number of missed pick-ups and angry residents. Changes to both shift times and collection routes have been blamed for the failures, and in November the councillor responsible for the scheme, Margaret Jones, apologised to the public, some of whom hadn’t seen their rubbish picked up for nearly a month.

 

Worse still, the council came in for further criticism when it emerged that Vital Earth’s processing site is in Derbyshire, meaning that the food waste is being transported around 200 miles by lorries. This temporary arrangement is due to the council choosing to roll out the scheme ahead of the completion of new facilities at Cardiff’s Lamby Way site.

 

Reflecting on the uproar, Cardiff Council spokesman Ian Lloyd Davies feels that the council has been unfairly demonised, and that some of the reporting of the new system has been misleading.

 

“We are using existing transport links [to transport the food waste], there is no increase in environmental impact,” Mr Davies points out. “Those vehicles were already on the road, they are coming from Derbyshire anyway, and we are utilising the return leg.”

           

The use of the Derbyshire plant is an interim contract to handle the scheme until Lamby Way is ready to take over, which should be “by the middle of this year”, according to Mr Davies.

 

Despite the use of existing lorry runs, it has been suggested in some quarters that this, coupled with the initial collection problems, shows that the initiative should have been introduced alongside the new Lamby Way plant this summer, rather than rushed through in October.

         

But some leading figures on the environment are broadly supportive of the scheme, in spite of its teething problems. Spokesman for Friends of the Earth Cymru Simon Williams believes that the sooner such things are implemented, the better.

 

“It’s a shame that it couldn’t all happen at the same time,” he admits. “But saying that, we don’t think the scheme should’ve been delayed – it’s important to roll these things out as soon as possible, and it’s important that people get used to them quickly.

           

“Any scheme that makes sure we put less waste into landfills, particularly food waste, is really important.”

           

Having survived the bad press, Cardiff’s composting is showing signs of success, with early estimates suggesting a 25 to 30% rise in food waste recycling. Better yet, the council has pointed to the scheme’s knock-on effect in increasing the use of green and white bags, showing that the city’s residents are continuing to embrace recycling in all its forms.

           

Such a key shift in attitudes is exactly what environmentalists like Simon are looking for. “It’s good to see Cardiff pushing ahead,” he says. “It’s not been the best at any form of recycling in the past, and hopefully we can see all the other local authorities following suit.”