County Durham’s Food Waste to Help Power Up to 10,000 North East Homes

Organic Waste Solutions is processing an estimated 9,000 tonnes of household food waste per year from Durham County Council, converting county-wide collections into renewable energy and agricultural bio-fertiliser.

Durham County Council has started household food waste collections across the county, with around half of the material being processed by Organic Waste Solutions at the Wardley Anaerobic Digestion facility on the outskirts of Gateshead. The estimated 9,000 tonnes of food waste collected annually is being converted into enough renewable energy to help fuel up to 10,000 North East homes, waste that would otherwise have gone to an Energy from Waste facility.

The partnership follows the introduction of legislation requiring all English local authorities to provide food waste collection services to their households. Durham County Council is among the first councils in the region to begin collections under the new duty, with them now underway county-wide.

Food waste collected from County Durham residents is transported to the Wardley facility, where anaerobic digestion breaks down organic material to produce two outputs: biogas, which is injected directly into the National Grid as a renewable energy source; and digestate, a nutrient-rich bio-fertiliser applied to agricultural land to grow future crops. The result is a complete circular economy loop with food waste being returned to the food chain.

“Durham County Council has been a committed partner throughout this process, and it’s great to see collections now underway across the county. The Wardley facility is well-placed to handle this volume, and what the figures show is the genuine scale of what becomes possible when local authorities treat food waste as a resource rather than a disposal problem.”

- Harry Tomlinson, Commercial Manager, Organic Waste Solutions

Cllr Kyle Genner, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, environment and police relations, said: “Following the government’s introduction of the food waste recycling scheme, we are working hard to implement the service across the county. This partnership will support our growing demand for energy and bring tangible benefit to our economy and farmers. We’re always on the lookout for great partnerships to help us deliver for residents, and we’re hopeful that’s what this partnership will prove to be.”

The Wardley facility’s capacity to process and convert food waste at this scale positions Organic Waste Solutions as a key partner for local authorities across the North East as the new statutory collections duty takes effect nationwide.