Energy Generation (Food Waste)

I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to raise an issue of increasing importance for this country, which touches on many aspects of public policy. Energy from food waste raises issues of energy security, waste management policy, climate change, land use, food security and the environment in which we all live. The House will be relieved to learn that I do not intend to cover all those topics in detail this evening, as there is simply not enough time. I wish to focus my remarks on the case for energy generation from food waste, specifically through the process of anaerobic digestion. I should declare a constituency interest right away. Ludlow is rightly famous for the quality of its food, both from local producers and also through the outstanding Michelin starred restaurants in Ludlow town itself, as well as the many other fine places to eat across the constituency. But Ludlow is also fast becoming known for what we do with the food that we produce but cannot eat—the food left on our plate; food waste—both in our homes and in commercial premises and processors. Since 2007, such waste has been collected by South Shropshire district council and taken to the Biocycle anaerobic digester on the edge of Ludlow, which is operated by Biogen Greenfinch, where it is turned into biogas, which generates heat and electricity. It is the first of only two such plants operating in this country. It is a fitting legacy for South Shropshire district council, which will sadly disappear on the 31 March, that under a Conservative administration it has pioneered the innovative use of this technology to turn waste into electricity. Anaerobic digestion and the gases produced by natural decomposition as a process can be traced back to the 16th century. While the first construction of an anaerobic digester was apparently in a leper colony in Bombay in 1859, it was English scientists who developed the technology to generate gas for street lighting in Victorian England. I am afraid that, as a nation, we have lost that early technological lead. One of my criticisms of this Government’s supposed enthusiasm for green energy has been the lamentable progress made in recent years in encouraging that technology. This is a low-tech, low-carbon biological process that happens naturally when bacteria break down organic matter in environments with little or no oxygen. It essentially mimics the workings of a cow’s stomach and produces a biogas made up of around 40 per cent. carbon dioxide and 60 per cent. methane—a greenhouse gas, as hon. Members know, that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It is effectively a controlled and enclosed version of the anaerobic breakdown of organic waste in landfill. It provides an almost ideal methane-mitigation policy, because the methane is captured and has no opportunity to escape into the atmosphere. Almost any organic material can be processed with anaerobic digestion, including waste paper, cardboard—which is often of too low a grade to recycle, if it has been contaminated by, for example, close proximity to food—grass clippings, leftover food, industrial effluents, sewage and animal waste.