Enhancing sustainable biowaste management in the UK: the role of the commercial and community composting sectors

Slater, Rachel and Frederickson, James (2009). Enhancing sustainable biowaste management in the UK: the role of the commercial and community composting sectors. In: ISWA World Congress 2009, 12-15 Oct 2009, Lisbon, Portugal.

URL: http://www.iswa2009.org

Abstract

This paper considers the different roles of the commercial and community composting sectors in contributing to sustainable biowaste management in the UK. Legislation and policy have driven the rapid development of a diverse composting sector. The next section sets out this policy context. This is followed with an analysis of the growth in, and characteristics of, the commercial composting sector and then the community composting sector. It is contended that both sectors have different strengths in contributing to sustainable biowaste management. For commercial composting this is based around large-scale composting and quality products, for the community sector this is based around services in difficult collection environments, local sustainability, promoting social cohesion and building stronger communities. The extent to which the benefits from the commercial and composting sectors will be realised in the future will depend on whether the sectors can develop synergistically and the extent to which this is encouraged by national and local policies.

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