Recycling benefits are being needlessly wasted because of the long distances travelled to out-of-town processing plants, a leading British recycler has argued.

Leon Mekitarian, founder of urban food waste innovators Vertal, said that transporting waste distances of as much as 100 miles for treatment made neither economic nor environmental sense.

He called on borough councils to maximise carbon positivity by adopting new, local technology.

“Diverting waste from landfill is a good thing - no question,” he said.  “Trucking it round the country for recycling is not.

“For some waste streams, there’s no alternative, because the infrastructure doesn’t yet exist for local recycling.

“That’s not true for food waste.  We’re making fantastic technological advances in the UK, and now have a sustainable, carbon-positive solution, up and running in London, and ready to roll out across the country.

“The only obstacle is inertia.”

Vertal’s first plant - just eight miles from the centre of London - is already recycling food waste from schools, hospitals and households in the capital into nutrient-rich agricultural fertilizer to grow new crops.  

In the next 12 months, the facility will process around 100,000 tonnes of waste, offsetting over 18,000 tonnes of atmospheric COâ‚‚ and helping farmers in nearby Surrey and Kent to break their dependence on petrochemical-derived products.

“The key engineering breakthrough with our process is that it’s inherently self-heating, so it pasteurises food waste naturally, under its own steam.

“Not only is this highly energy-efficient, but it’s also very fast and very compact, so we can install it locally in urban environments, slashing transport costs.

“We can install a plant in as little as six months, at a fraction of the cost of legacy technologies, and with a big leap forward in carbon positivity.”

The process has already attracted interest from waste management authorities in New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Madrid, Mexico City, Karachi, Lagos and Beijing.

Vertal has made a short film - viewable online via YouTube - explaining the technology and showing its plant in action.  It can be seen at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ewrSj7cA8