AmeyCespa's In Vessel compost achieves PAS 100 standard

The compost produced by the In Vessel Composting (IVC) system on AmeyCespa's Waterbeach Waste Management Park in Cambridgeshire has been awarded the prestigious PAS 100 standard.

The product, which is made from mixed food and garden waste collected from households by district councils in Cambridgeshire, was found to have met all the criteria needed to achieve the standard during an external assessment.

PAS 100 is the national compost benchmark, which outlines the requirements for the process of composting, the selection of materials from which compost is made and even how it is labelled.

Achieving the standard puts the material on a par with the compost produced through AmeyCespa's open windrow composting system, which was awarded PAS 100 accreditation three years ago.

Jon Jones, Head of Operations for AmeyCespa East, said: "Providing a range of composting facilities on our site helps us to maximise the amount of waste we are diverting from landfill.

"Achieving the PAS 100 standard for the compost produced by the IVC recognises the high quality of the material as well as confirming that it is safe, reliable and of high performance.

"This is a great achievement and is testament to the hard work of the IVC team."

AmeyCespa's In Vessel compost achieves PAS100 standard/2

Leon Livermore, Head of the Supporting Businesses and Communities Service in Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "Cambridgeshire County Council is working closely with our partners at AmeyCespa to ensure the highest standards of waste management for the county's waste and recovery of useful resources.

"I am very glad that the compost produced from residents' mixed kitchen and garden waste has now gained the prestigious PAS 100 standard. I hope this news gives further confidence to our local farmers to use it on land, helping to turn our residents' high recycling performance into a boost for the local economy."

AmeyCespa was the first company in Britain to establish a commercial-sized, In Vessel Composting system that complies with the Animal By-Products Regulations, which allows us to collect and compost food waste from commercial and domestic sources and ensure that there is no potential to spread animal diseases with the compost product.

Last year the In-Vessel Composting system treated 68,000 tonnes of food and garden waste, mainly from household kerbside collections. All the soil conditioning compost produced goes back on to the local gardens, allotments and farmland of Cambridgeshire.