Yorkshire firm’s solution to food waste crisis

Forge Recycling’s new food collection service means Yorkshire businesses can solve their waste problems and hit green targets.

It is particularly innovative, as the food waste it collects – including popular ‘green’ compostable packaging - is diverted away from landfill or incineration sites to be turned into natural compost or fuel instead.

Plus, the waste all stays within Yorkshire – helping to lower the carbon footprint further and bringing benefits to the local economy.

The Forge Recycling service sends waste either to be turned to fuel through a natural process known as aneorbic digestion, or to be it turned into compost – particularly useful for businesses which use compostable packaging such as Vegware.

The popular plant-based ‘green’ alternative to plastic single use cups and cutlery is designed to decompose. However, despite businesses purchasing the packaging in good faith, it can often end up in landfill or being incinerated because some food waste plants don’t have the necessary processes in place to deal with them.

However, Forge Recycling’s links with food waste specialists Maltings Organic means compostable packaging will actually end up being returned to nature as intended.

Forge Reyclings Operations Director, Sam Goodall said: “We spoke to many independent coffee shops and found a lot of them were using compostable containers such as Vegware.

“But they weren’t aware that they need to be treated in a certain way in order to be fully ‘green’.”

Food waste has been identified as a major problem – around a third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste.

Over 10m tonnes of food is thrown away in the UK every year – a combination of domestic and waste from commercial outlets such as restaurants, pubs and businesses.

Food waste sent to landfill creates methane gas – 22 times more damaging to the environment than CO2.

The family-run waste business, which also offers a full suite of recycling and waste services, has a long history of innovative waste solutions.

Forge Recycling recently came up with a collection service which has seen thousands of single use disposable cups collected from locations around Leeds and delivered to the world’s first coffee cup recycling plant.

Once there, the cups are treated and reborn as high-quality paper.

Forge Recycling covers a large area, including Leeds, York, and Harrogate, and is set to take delivery of a ‘split’ vehicle which can collect food waste and glass in a single visit, providing additional savings for customers.

To find out more, go to www.forgerecycling.co.uk