The first commercial food waste anaerobic digestion plant in the North East has opened in County Durham. Emerald Biogas' £8m facility at Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate is expected to produce enough energy to power 2,000 homes a year from more than 50,000 tonnes of waste collected from supermarkets, fast food outlets, businesses and schools in the region. Planning permission to expand the capacity to four times the current size has already been secured. The site can also process card, plastics and other materials, the company said, with the residual waste material sent to local recycling facilities, further diverting waste from landfill. As well as power, the facility will produce a nutrient rich digestate that can be used by farmers to improve crop yields and soil condition as an alternative to chemical fertilisers. Emerald said the plant will be able to claw back some of the value from the £6.9bn worth of food and packaging that research by government-backed waste advisory body WRAP has shown is being wasted every year by the UK's grocery and manufacturing sector. The North-East has also been highlighted by the Love Food Hate Waste initiative as the third highest region in the UK for food waste based on the level of waste produced by the average householder. Antony Warren, director of Emerald Biogas said: "This truly is a one of a kind facility in the North East and the first in the region to begin operating. We are now in the position to accept and process unwanted commercial food waste and employ the latest AD technology to create a valued commodity that will be extremely beneficial to the local business and farming community. Emerald secured a £1.86m grant for the project from the Rural Development Programme for England, which is jointly funded by Defra and the EU, as well as a £850,000 loan from WRAP, and £3.3m in finance from HSBC. Dan Rogerson, the newly-appointed Resource Management Minister said: "Dealing with waste and recycling properly is good for the environment and good for businesses, creating a stronger economy and jobs. Our AD loan fund has helped to support the development of this plant which will treat food waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and recycle valuable nutrients back to the land." In related news, statistics published yesterday by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) show over half of Scotland's local authorities are above the national recycling average, with nine already hitting their 50 per cent target. According to the figures, Scotland's local authorities recycled 41.2 per cent of the household waste they collected in 2012, up from 40.1 per cent the previous year. Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said he expected the figures to improve again during 2013 following a £20m investment to help councils roll-out food waste collections to households. The Scottish Government has also joined Ellen MacArthur's Circular Economy 100 initiative to look at ways to develop a more resource-efficient economy. "Close to half a million households have received a new food waste service already this year, meaning one million households in Scotland now have a service to collect and recycle their food waste. The impact of this investment will be seen in next year's figures," Lochhead said in a statement. "The Zero Waste agenda is about much more than just recycling - it's about turning our waste into an economic asset that will improve the competitiveness of Scotland's economy. We continue to work closely with the businesses and organisations like the Ellen Macarthur Foundation to stimulate these important opportunities."
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