Waste management legislation increases market for new composting plants

The company has announced the opening its first industrial scale thermophilic aerobic composting plant, which has a number of new and patented design features, significantly improving its performance. The new plant uses TEG’s Silo-Cage system, which is a continuous flow process that insures that the necessary temperatures are reached and maintained throughout the mix over the required period of time, effectively limiting pathogens. The system can handle a wide variety of organic wastes, such as the separated organic fraction of household waste, pharmaceutical and chemical wastes and waste from the food, brewing and distilling industries.

The new TEG Silo-Cage plant is at Hutton, Preston, and will produce a composted organic fertiliser based on poultry litter and food residuals. It will also be used to demonstrate the vital role thermophilic composting can play as a waste management solution to potential customers.

“There is increasing concern over the safety of products applied to land,” said Dick Bilborough, Managing Director of TEG Environmental. “In order to be acceptable to the public, products must be free of pathogens, unpleasant odour and appearance and be of real value to the land. With the increased volume of organic waste competing for application to the available land bank, the higher quality product will dominate. Thermophilic in-vessel composting produces such a product.”

The plant is also naturally aerated and so does not require agitation or turning of the mix, resulting in lower power and energy requirements. The end product does not resemble the original waste, and is stable, easy to store, handle and spread on to land.

“Waste management problems are mounting and the TEG system is the greenest solution as well as being cost effective,” said Bilborough. “Thermophilic composting and the Silo-Cage system in particular offer a viable and better alternative to incineration and have an important role to play in delivering future waste management strategies across a wide range of sectors.”