In-vessel composting (IVC) is not completely dissimilar to other forms of commercial composting, but it is much more controlled than windrow composting and more tightly regulated. This is because our in-vessel composting system can treat all kitchen waste; meat, fish or vegetable; cooked or uncooked and if the material is not composted properly there is the potential to spread disease, and attract vermin.
The Animal By-Products Regulations (ABPR) was introduced in 2003 to ensure that this type of material is always treated in a suitable and safe way, whether it is composted or treated in any other way. Donarbon was the first company in England to have a commercially sized in-vessel composting system that meets the requirements of the ABPR and the system we use is provided by Wasteology Systems Ltd.
Currently we treat around 50,000 tonnes of organic waste through our in-vessel composting system at Waterbeach and around 27,000 tonnes of soil conditioner is produced. The vast majority of the waste we treat is household kitchen and garden waste collected by District Councils in Cambridgeshire as part of their kerbside recycling schemes (depending on where you live, either green bin, brown bin or paper sack waste). Donarbon also offers separate food waste collections to local pubs, restaurants, schools, colleges and works canteens and this waste comes to our in-vessel composter too.
Find out more about the IVC process