Food waste sent to landfill after fault at plant

About 90 tonnes of recyclable food waste has been sent to landfill due to a fault at Guernsey's waste processing plant that persisted for three weeks, the States has said.

The plant at Longue Hougue, which prepares food waste before it is sent off the island to be broken down by bacteria, broke on 21 April but it has now been fixed.

Guernsey Waste said it limited the backlog of waste needing to be sent to landfill from an estimated 150 tonnes to about 90 tonnes after the site was restored on Thursday.

Operations manager Sarah Robinson said it was necessary to send the waste to landfill to prevent issues with future processing.

Guernsey Waste said it was the longest interruption in the processing of food waste since the site was set up in 2019.

It said work was under way to clear the stockpile of unprocessed waste, which it anticipated to be completed early next week.

It added 90 tonnes of landfill was "less than a week's worth of the island's food waste".

Mrs Robinson said some of the oldest remaining food waste may need to be sent to landfill if it was deemed unsuitable for processing.

"After the fault to our processing equipment, the decision to landfill some of the decomposed waste was necessary to prevent issues with future processing and to ensure we had the capacity to continuing accepting deliveries of food waste," she said.

"During that time, every effort has been taken to keep the amount of food waste landfilled to a minimum."

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