Churchill Fellowship Lisa Brown Impact Environmental Consulting

Churchill Fellowship Approximately 100 awarded to Australians each year United Kingdom, Norway, Canada and USA Eight week study tour Met 55 waste professionals and visited: Processors Commercial collection Municipalities Regulators Haulers Schools Report available

Food Waste Diversion - It Matters! Large proportion of waste stream 23% of all waste to landfill in NZ is organic 53% of this organic waste is food/kitchen waste Recent audit of fourteen Councils in Sydney showed food comprises 42.7% by weight Role in Climate Change: Direct emissions - 3% of Global Indirect emissions: Approximately 25% of TOTAL NATIONAL emissions arise from food production and distribution; Potential as source of renewable energy which will in turn displace use of fossil fuels (U.K. est. up to 2% of renewable electricity may arise from waste)

United Kingdom Very high profile issue in UK Gordon Brown commented on importance of reducing food waste Mayor of London announced ‘Foodwaste to Fuel Alliance’ – 10 June 09 Deliver 5 new bio-fuel plants in London by 2012; £84 million over next 3 years for waste reduction, over 1/3 is for waste to energy projects; BAA (8,000 tonnes – AD), Sainsbury (AD in London) and Keystone have joined Alliance

United Kingdom EU Directive “Council Directive on the landfill of waste (European Union, the Council 1999) driving diversion of organics / biodegradable waste Mandates a stepwise reduction to: 75% of 1995 level by 16 July % of 1995 level 16 July % of 1995 level by 2020

United Kingdom Tax for each tonne of biodegradable waste will be equal to NZ$ / tonne by Level of fine the EU might impose on the UK unknown Central government involved: New Technologies Demonstrator program Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) Approximately NZ$7,620,000 allocated Currently forty (40) projects being investigated. Capital costs of a new processing facilities, utilising a ‘proven’ technology is annualised - capital cost covered by the central government.

United Kingdom Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) Each MWh of electricity from Advanced Conversion Technologies (AD, Gasification and Pyrolysis) for organic component of waste stream eligible for one ROC Proposal for ROC eligibility for AD to double to two ROCs and landfill gas extraction eligibility to reduce to one quarter of one ROC ROCs traded - in July 08 average value was AUD $135.25

United Kingdom WRAP Love Food Hate Waste Program Raise profile of food waste One third of all food purchased is wasted Studies into best way to collect and process Recommend use of AD over composting Food should be collected weekly with garbage fortnightly Food collected without garden organics Draft Quality Protocol for Digestate

Norway 01 July 2009 – New Regulation prohibiting disposal of biodegradable waste Ban on disposal of easy degradable organic waste introduced in % of the population or 2.2 million people have access to source separated food collection. 14,000 tonnes in 02 Only 25% of population have a collection service for garden waste Driven by view that diverting organics from disposal is ‘low hanging fruit’ for GHG reductions

Norway - Municipality Of Oslo Population: 1,283,533 Proposes to introduce SSO this year One bin with three streams White bags for garbage, blue bags for plastic and green bags for organics Optically sorted Processed in AD with biogas upgraded for use in city buses Will also process sewage through AD and use biogas in city buses.

Norway Sewage Treatment Works Commenced accepting food waste when regulations changed to prevent food waste being fed to pigs Feedstock: 148 cubic metres of sewage (at 1-2% dry solids); 14 cubic metres of food scraps 36 litres methanol With introduction of food waste, biogas production increased from 850,000 Nm 3 at 60-65% to 2,100,000 Nm 3 Only plant in Norway with biogas upgrading system. Gas upgraded for use in local vehicles. Produces 165,000 Nm 3 of upgraded gas (this requires 218,000 Nm 3 of raw biogas)

Toronto 510,000 Single Dwellings and 500,000 Multi Unit Dwellings Introduced food collection in Driven by landfill closure Processed in AD with digestate composted Residents allowed to use plastic bags to wrap organics - old bread bags etc Total diversion rate from single dwellings is 59%, 15.5% of which is food waste Allow all organics, including nappies, kitty litter and hair Over 90% participation rates

Toronto Bags ??? 20%, by weight, of feedstock is plastic bags (9% of which is water) Bags removed in wet pretreatment system by rake after pulping and prior to AD Less than 0.5% plastic is left in the digestate Composting processor has no problem with removing bags Contamination 1.5% heavies (Knives and bones) 1.5% grit 20% bags (half of which is water)

United States No equivalent regulation to EU Landfill Directive Very inexpensive landfilling Small number of programs driven by progressive waste managers and green communities

Innovations Trial to use clear plastic bags in Durham Region, with garbage containing recycling left at kerbside. Two AD facilities accepted commercial food waste with packaging. Upgrading biogas for use in vehicles. Sewage treatment works accepting food organics.

Innovations - Offsets for Composting 21 April 2009 the ‘Avoided Emissions from Organic Waste Disposal’ protocol was approved by the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Eligible projects diverting food and other organic waste from landfill and thereby mitigating greenhouse gas emissions will be eligible for carbon credits or offsets under the CCX. One dry tonne of food waste = 4.94 tonnes of CO2 At NZ$5.13/credit, Composter receives $25.35 per tonne of dry food waste diverted.

Summary Regulation driven in Europe and UK. Link to GHG driver. Canada and U.S.A. grass roots - driven by Municipality or County Provision of bench top bin and liners achieves greatest participation Composting has & remains most widespread processing choice but anaerobic digestion set to grow Optimum collection is weekly organics and fortnightly garbage Diversion kg/hh/wk Participation 40-60%, Toronto > 90%

Lisa Brown Impact Environmental Consulting