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Food packaging must comply with AD process
The food packaging industry needs to work closely with the anaerobic digestion (AD) sector to avoid compostable packaging contaminating the AD process, according to an industry expert.
AD is a treatment that composts biodegradable waste in the absence of oxygen, producing a biogas that can be used to generate electricity and heat.
Speaking at the Pro2Pac show, Lord Rupert Redesdale, Vice Chair All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group and Chairman of ADBA, ADBA (Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association) said that the future of the latest renewable energy, AD, will only work if there is clear understanding with the packaging industry about what can and cannot be presented at an AD plant.
He said that the coalition government is increasingly looking away from landfill and at AD technology and the Waste Directive is focusing on organic waste going to AD.
Lord Redesdale said: “The problem is people are putting their organic waste in plastic bags.
“Plastic bags are compostable and they will break down from the composting process but they will not digest in the AD process. What you end up with is the plastic bag stuck around your pump mechanisms, which is incredibly expensive to deal with and quite problematic.”
Lord Redesdale said that the food packaging industry will need to start developing AD compliant packaging such as biodegradable packaging.
He said that AD can provide at least 20% of the UK’s domestic gas supply and that there are 38 to 45 AD plants in the UK at the moment.
Lord Redesdale said that AD will be a mature industry in the next 10 years and that this development will have implications for the food packaging industry. This is because the digestate from the process can be made into fertiliser and spread “onto the land”.
He added: “You can only put this on to the land if you have PAS 10. You cannot do this if you have plastic in it. There are certain types of plastic that we are going to have to work out how to deal with.
“The supermarkets, to avoid a spike in food prices, are going to want to see as much digestate to go back on the land as possible. Therefore, they are going to put the onus back on the industry.
“If we say we cannot accept it than they are going to be looking through a whole list of items and saying this is the issue. And then they will we turn around and say you cannot use certain types of packaging.”
He explained that the packaging industry only has a short period of time to come to terms with a technology that will deal with the vast majority of organic waste in the future.
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