Self-Service
Anything biodegradable that is intended for food but has either spoiled or become waste for some other reason is a very valuable resource and should not end up in a mixed household waste container, where it ends up in a landfill or incinerated. Biowaste is 100% recyclable. But which is more sensible: to compost biowaste yourself or to hand it over to a waste handler in a biowaste container?
The benefits of composting. Composting isn’t very complicated, it can be done by almost anyone who has the facilities in their garden. It’s certainly a good idea to read up on composting, how to make your own compost, how to help it turn into compost, etc. – you’ll get a better quality compost.
If you have a composter at home, it can be used to compost wood leaves and other garden waste successfully, with a small amount of food waste and small wood chips added to speed up the process.
Composting at home requires constant attention: the compost needs to be mixed and the finished compost needs to be stored, and it is necessary to constantly monitor that the waste placed in the compost for composting is of the right moisture content, composition, etc.
Some biodegradable wastes in the compost can also cause problems, for example the peels of mandarins and other foreign fruits do not compost fast enough. Fish, meat and dairy products attract animals, birds and, in the summer, can cause worms to enter the compost.
Composting also has its drawbacks – for example, composting wastes an energy resource, gas. Composting can also produce stench – make sure you choose the right place for your compost! In cold winter weather, the fermentation process stops working due to low temperatures, and store-bought composters also tend to freeze in winter. Also, if you have a small household, you may end up having problems finding a use for your compost. And, unfortunately, the composting process comes to a standstill during the cold season.
The most convenient and simplest solution is to hand over the biodegradable waste to the transporter in a container, and all the waste treatment is done in a biomethane plant on behalf of the waste holder for a very reasonable fee. Moreover, the process of biomethane production is less polluting, as the CO2 released during composting is captured in the biomethane plant and does not enter the environment.
How gas and fertiliser production from bio-waste works
Biowaste in Estonia is used to produce biogas, which can be used as a fuel for cars, and digestate, which is used as an agricultural fertiliser. EKT Ecobio’s Maardu biogas plant is unique in that it uses biodegradable household waste to produce gas: kitchen and food waste, as well as green landscaping waste, is fermented into biomethane at the plant.
The plant has the capacity to treat input material (from the general public, trade, etc.) with impurities. In addition to the fermentation process, the waste is also heated to 70 degrees Celsius for hygienisation. Liquid sludge is also purified before being used in agriculture. The digestion process produces about 17 500 tonnes of digestate per year, which is used to fertilise fields in Northern Estonia.
How can kitchen waste be turned into biogas? Watch the video: https://ecobio.ee
The Maardu biogas plant’s production is already used today as a fuel in Tallinn City Transport (TLT) gas buses – around 50 Tallinn gas buses can run on Maardu gas plant’s production per year.
Interesting fact!
10 kg of kitchen waste can be used to produce a cubic metre of biomethane, equivalent to a litre of petrol. The biogas plant will be able to handle around 20 000 tonnes of biodegradable waste per year. As people are not yet in the habit of separate collection of bio-waste, it will initially be brought in from all over Estonia.
