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AD ‘Important In Fight Against Climate Change’


Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been named as an “important contributor” in the fight against climate change in the UK, with renowned environmentalist Lord Deben stating that the technology’s story “needs to be told more widely”.

Renewable Energy Magazine reported on his comments, which he made at the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) National Conference 2017.

Lord Deben stated: “AD is not just a mechanism for providing energy but also makes an important contribution to the health of our soils.” He added that it’s a vital part of our strategy to fight climate change.

AD is “an increasingly efficient way of completing the system by taking what cannot be reused or directly recycled and giving it real value”, Lord Deben recently wrote in a foreword for the ADBA quarterly member magazine.

However, data from WRAP shows that many local authorities in England need to do more to improve separate food waste collection if we’re to make the most of the benefits AD offers. 

The ADBA highlighted figures from the organisation, which found that only one third of local authorities in England had separate food waste collections in place in 2016/17. This is a seven per cent increase in four years, something that the association described as “not good enough”.

Scotland and Wales are performing much better though, with 56 per cent of local authorities in Scotland offering separate food waste collections, and an impressive 86 per cent doing the same in Wales.

As a result, just 14 per cent of the total food waste produced in the UK is collected for recycling at present.

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