Environment Secretary visits green power plant in Rushden Northamptonshire

The Westwood digester, run by Biogen Greenfinch, collects waste from the West London Waste Authority and household name companies in the region such as Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, and Whitbread. The plant converts this waste into enough electricity to power 2,700 homes, and the digestate left over after this process is a nutrient rich fertiliser which is spread onto adjacent farmland, reducing the need for fossil fuel-based fertilisers.

Hilary Benn met representatives from Biogen Greenfinch to tour the facility and discuss the options for increased use of Anaerobic Digestion of food waste in the future.

Hilary Benn said:

“Rather than dumping our food waste into landfill, using it to generate low carbon electricity and provide environmentally-friendly fertiliser for farming is a much better option both for the environment and economically.

“Anaerobic Digestion is a growth area and we will continue to encourage companies such as Biogen Greenfinch to expand and provide more digesters across the country.”

Last week Defra launched a consultation on restricting items that can be sent to landfill including food waste.