Warehouse-sized compost heaps promise sweet smell of success

All environmentalists know that it makes sense to compost organic waste wherever possible, but now one UK firm is seeking to make composters out of all of us by providing industrial scale facilities capable of composting black bag waste that would otherwise have been diverted to landfill.

New Earth Solutions (NES) has developed a means of effectively "industrialising the composting process" that sees large quantities of waste heated, irrigated and aerated to help speed up the breakdown of the material. "The enzymes required for breakdown are already present in the waste," explains Adrian Jones, financial director at NES. "We just make the perfect environment for them."

The company claims the process can be used to breakdown segregated organic waste such as paper and card to make compost that meets horticultural standards, but can also handle black bag general waste that has had recyclable plastics and metals removed. "It results in lower quality compost because some metals may remain," explained Jones. "But it can still be used on brownfield sites, or can be turned into a waste-derived fuel."

NES currently has one facility up-and-running in Dorset taking waste from local councils and producing up to 50,000 tonnes of compost a year. Jones said that the company is now seeking to expand rapidly as rising landfill taxes and EU legislation force more and more councils to consider means of diverting waste from landfill.

"We've got a facility under construction in Kent that is due to open in September and plans for two more sites that we hope to complete by the end of 2009," he said. "We are then targeting a roll out of 14 sites by 2010 and 50 sites by 2012."

Booming demand for waste management services means Jones is confident the new sites, each of which is expected to cost £10m to construct, will find a market. "Projections show they'll be a waste management market worth up to £20bn by 2020 and that the UK could support over 600 composting plants," he said.

To finance its expansion push NES has just launched a new investment fund. Jones said that the fund was aiming to deliver double digit annual returns over 15 years.