Composting arb and commercial garden waste.

[Guest Gimlet]

Has anyone done their own commercial scale waste composting as an alternative to tipping? 

 

I have some land available, just wondered if it's feesible. 

[doobin]

Major hurdles to clear first with the EA. Can't see it would be worth it trying to do it legally.

[Guest Gimlet]

I was thinking small scale farm composting. One of my farm clients composts everything and puts it back on the land. They add chipped arb and hedglaying waste to it as well. I have farmland available and wondered about doing the same. 

Edited January 20, 2020 by Gimlet

[Squaredy]

17 minutes ago, Gimlet said:

I was thinking farm scale composting. One of my farm clients composts everything and puts it back on the land. They add chipped arb and hedglaying waste to it as well. I have farmland available and wondered about doing the same. 

If you mean dealing with your own waste you may get away with it.  If you mean taking other people’s waste and charging then you need to read up on environment agency website or NRW if in Wales.  I believe you even need a permit to have a fire to dispose of green waste these days.

 

 To do it properly it may well be a minefield.

[Guest Gimlet]

No, definitely just my own waste. I wouldn't be taking in other people's waste or selling the compost. My brother owns the land. If I could compost my waste he would put it on his fields.

 

The nearest tip site for me is 18 miles away. It would be worth the effort to compost, even without any resale revenue, just to save the time and cost of tipping. And for sacrificing a small corner of a field that is only used for making hay, and which already has a derelict patch on it where some old buildings used to be, my brother would have compost, on site, free of charge.

 

The site is in a high position, nowhere near a water source or any habitation and it would only be dry vegetation being composted, no wet matter, no food waste, and it would go straight back onto the land on which it's produced. It seems commonsense to do that rather than burn diesel constantly dragging small amounts half way across the county. Too commonsense perhaps.?

Edited January 20, 2020 by Gimlet

[doobin]

If it really is the land upon which it was produced, then you might get away it. The D7 exemption for burning of green waste only applies to the land upon which it was produced- there may be a similar exemption for composting. If as I suspect you mean trade waste from youir jobs, then no.

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, doobin said:

If it really is the land upon which it was produced, then you might get away it. The D7 exemption for burning of green waste only applies to the land upon which it was produced- there may be a similar exemption for composting. If as I suspect you mean trade waste from youir jobs, then no.

IIRC the EA split the requirement into three parts, storage, treatment then disposal. You require exemptions for all of them and the validity of the exemption depends on the site planning permission.

 

Several years ago I had no trouble doing the paperwork exercise of  storage of arb arisings for  fuel and compost, treating it by log processing, chipping and shredding and disposing of it by burning in a heating plant, sale of chips and spreading composted material on site but planning became a big issue which was not resolved when I  was retired three years ago.

 

If it's the plant waste from a one man band in the corner of a field I cannot see many commenting unless you have upset someone in the neighbourhood

 

As a post script it looks like it is covered by

 

T23 waste exemption: aerobic composting and associated prior treatment - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

---

The T23 exemption allows you to compost small volumes of vegetation, cardboard and food waste to spread on soil to...

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by openspaceman