The people of Shropshire own an anaerobic digestion plant in Ludlow. It was built by South Shropshire District Council in 2007 and thus is now in the custody of the new Shropshire Council.
The plant was build with government funding as part of the New Technologies Demonstrator Programme.
This project was co-funded by the Council, DEFRA and Advantage West Midlands in order to 'arm key decision makers with the facts and realities of implementing new technologies and empowering them to make informed decisions'.
The plant is the first of its kind in the UK to process source-separated municipal kitchen waste into biogas and a biofertiliser. It is a demonstration plant, so its designed to be a research and development facility rather than a commercial plant.
The site aims to showcase the technology, prove its reliability and educate people by monitoring the process and publicising the technology.
Furthermore the plant is helping to keep 5,000 tonnes of food waste out of landfill every year. It also uses the methane gas created to generate over 1.5 million kWh of 'green' electricity.
The site is entirely self sufficient in power and even exports some of this to the national grid.
The site is operated day to day by Biogen-Greenfinch.
