The Composting material arrives!

Weighing in the raw material

Our newist piece of equipment at the site is the weighbridge. By installing this we avoid the need for any lorry movements through the local villages.

All Council waste has to be weighed before the load is added to the composting heap for the first shredding process. The method involves weighing the lorry as it arrives, after tipping the load the lorry is weighed again. The difference obviously being the weight of the material left behind.

The Shredder

The fresh intake is shredded for the first time within a 24 hours of arrival. After the initial shredding, it is left in a heap to breakdown. Throughout this process the heap is turned and if required re shredded 2 or 3 times, the tempertature is constantly monitored to ensure maximum breakdown and any existing pathogens are killed off.

If the temperature of the heap starts to drop then turning the compost regenerates the composting process and speeds up the breakdown. After 3 months or so in the summer or 5 to 6 months in the autumn and winter the compost is ready to proceed to the next stage. 

The Screener.

Once the shredding process has finished and left for a few weeks, the compost is ready to be passed over a 25mm screen, this starts the removal of uncompostable materials that may still be present in the compost. It also serves to further aid the breakdown of materials whilst keeping heap temperatures up. Materials not suitable for composting are rejected out of the back of the screener and returned to a heap for further breakdown and/or shredding.

Finally the compost is passed over a 10 mm screen, and left to cool down. Once cooled the compost is ready for sale.