Harper Adams University Anaerobic Digestion facility

Did you know? Shropshire based Harper Adams University generate clean green energy from farm waste at their site in Newport, near Telford. 

The ENR-G (Energy and Nutrient Re-Generation) initiative aims to address three key policy issues identified in the Energy White Paper 2007. The project is a 350KWe waste to energy Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant using College Farm waste and food waste streams diverted from landfill to generate renewable power. It will enable Harper Adams to be largely self sufficient in electricity and heat on the main College campus.

The project is financially sustainable and will create ongoing carbon equivalent savings of 11,229 tonnes pa, representing 3.4 times the current emissions from campus buildings. In addition, the College will fix electricity and heat prices for 10 years, reducing exposure to market volatility and improving its energy security. A demonstration and research programme will guide others through AD system implementation, where links to the College's award-winning biomass CHP system will be explored.

The creation of the plant was made possible by the award, in June 2009, of loan finance from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Revolving Green Fund. Harper Adams was one of only three UK projects to benefit from the £10 million fund. 

The University College then brought on board partners BiogenGreenfinch, who supplied the plant, and power company E.ON. The plant began to generate energy in April 2010, and the handover from Biogen was completed in the autumn 2010.

Compost direct from the farm

Peat free compost from Agripost

Agripost is a composting business based at Lower House Farm in the village of Cardeston, Shropshire (it lies near Ford on the main road between Shrewsbury and Welshpool).

The farmer runs a large scale commercial composting operation alongside traditional farming practices. They take green waste from local businesses and local councils and 'recycle' it into a peat-free compost that can be used for gardening, landscaping and farming purposes.

Agripost is a local composting operation processing thousands of tonnes of green garden waste from surrounding areas. They conform to the strict regimes laid down by the Environmental Agency and their WRAP Protocol and produce a PAS100 certified compost which means it can be sold. 

Although they have enough land to easily spread all the compost on their own farm they do very occasionally have (wholesale amounts only) of compost for sale on request.  Please note - they don't however sell small quantities of compost to individual residents - this is for large scale commercial contractors who want to buy literally tonnes of the stuff by the trailer load only. 

For those of you who are interested, general enquirers should contact  

Agripost - Telephone (01743) 821226

www.agripost.co.uk 

Can I add worms to my compost heap?

Worms are worms - right? They're all the same - right? WRONG!  Although many people assume that worms are all the same there are actually around 28 species of worm in the UK alone!


So collecting up earth worms from around your garden and adding them to your compost heap is not really helping - they are the wrong type of worm.  The worms you want in your compost heap are not earth worms but specialist red worms and tiger worms which have huge appetites and specialise on eating rotting food and organic material. 

You see all worms live in different depths of soil, and are grouped into three main categories. Deep, Shallow and leaf litter.  The most common one you find in the garden are the deep burrowers known as Lob worms - these guys do not want to be in a hot sweating rotting compost heap and if you put them in they will (if they even survive the ordeal) try to get out, they like to live in cool deep dark soil.

The ones you want are the one who specialise in living in rotting leaves, manure heaps and compost heaps. These worms are often red in colour and much thinner than Lob / Earth worms.  The 3 main species of worms you want for composting are :-

•Red Worm (Eisenia andrei) also known as red wrigglers

•Tiger Worm (Eisenia fetida) also known as brandlings / Manure Worms

•Dendrobaena (Eisenia hortensis) also known as Dendras / European Nightcrawler

Red worms as their name suggests are red and the same size as the Tiger Worm (around 5 cm's) Tiger worms and Dendrobaena are very similar to look at as they are both stripy, however Dendras are twice the size and fatter (around 10 cm's long).

So the official advice from our Master Composters is no - do not add worms to your heap - simply place your compost heap on bare soil and you will attract all the (appropriate) worms that you need - once the heap is mature and cool enough for them. 

Shrewsbury commercial composting site investment

Shropshire farming and composting business Agripost Ltd. (who process all your garden waste) are making sustainability a top priority on their mixed farming unit in Cardeston near Shrewsbury.  The farm already acts as the central hub for the Councils garden waste collection and processes up to 15,000 tonnes of green waste every year helping to reduce landfill and make a high quality compost to spread on their land. 

Now the growing local business has erected a 50kW wind turbine on site to add to the existing biomass boiler and 200kW solar (PV) array mounted on the roofs of their poultry units.

Farmer & Managing Director, Mark Gethin said “The overall power needs of the poultry unit is some 300,000kw per annum. The solar panels provide approximately half of this, depending on the amount of daylight, sunshine and season. The proposed wind turbine will generate between 144,000 to 170,000 kw per year and in particular will generate electricity in winter and at night when the poultry units are net users of non PV energy.  The size of the wind turbine was chosen deliberately to generate the shortfall in renewable energy and for the first time will mean we are effectively self sufficient in power as a farm business” 

“We are aiming to become carbon neutral on the farm and the turbine investment is another way for us to generate our own electricity, complementing the solar panels perfectly.  We are also building an in-vessel composting facility to allow us to also compost food waste along side the green waste and an anaerobic digester to process food waste, slurry and chicken litter” he added

Bucknell Parish Litter Pickers

Primary tabsesidents in Bucknell and surrounding parts of south Shropshire are taking action to improve their environment through regular community litter picking.  Pictured above (left to right) are locals Mike, Martin & Graham who are just part of a much larger group of committed volunteers.

Residents in Bucknell and surrounding parts of south Shropshire are taking action to improve their environment through regular community litter picking.  Pictured above (left to right) are locals Mike, Martin & Graham who are just part of a much larger group of committed volunteers.  The group are making using new equipment from local Herefordshire-based manufacturers Helping Hand Ltd. purchased using a grant from Shropshire Councils Local Joint Committe.

The group of volunteers are part of the 'Bedstone and Bucknell Good Neighbours' group, formed to keep their community free of litter and rubbish. The recieved a grant of £150 from the LJC to purchase bags, gloves, litter pickers and fluorescent jackets to help them keep safe and clean whilst doing their work. Once the litter is collected by the volunteers its then picked up by Shropshire Councils Street Cleansing Service and then disposed of professionally through our contract with Veolia.

Its fanstastic to see people who care about their environment making a real difference and lets hope it inspires other people across Shropshire to follow their lead.  If you want to get involved contact the Council directly.  We can provide expert advice, equipment and support with all aspects of collecting and disposing of litter if you want to help us keep Shropshire tidy.