The South Shropshire Biowaste Digester

Greenfinch in partnership with South Shropshire District Council, were awarded funding through AWM and the Defra New Technology Demonstrator Programme, for the construction of an anaerobic digester to treat South Shropshire's biowaste.   The digester is the first full-scale biowaste digester in the UK, and is designed to recycle 5,000 tonnes per year of source-separated household biowaste.

Greenfinch designed, built and commissioned the plant on schedule and to budget, with the plant first taking biowaste in March 2006.   Greenfinch now has the contract to operate the plant on behalf of Biocycle South Shropshire, the community company set up to run the digester.

Biowaste is collected and delivered to the enclosed waste reception hall at the South Shropshire Biowaste Digester for processing.   Initially the feedstock was combined kitchen and garden waste, collected fortnightly in large green wheelie bins. However, this collection method resulted in a low capture of food waste and there was a high level of contamination.