The machine which prepares our food waste for export is broken, meaning tonnes of it is being sent to landfill instead.
The “temporary contingency measure” was announced today, after the machine broke down on Monday.
That machine is a processing plant, which prepares food waste for export to the UK for ‘anaerobic digestion’.
It should be fixed by 8 May.
Until then, tonnes of food waste will have built up at Longue Hougue, rotting away. Guernsey Waste says the only viable contingency plan is to put that into landfill at Mont Cuet.
With around 5,000 tonnes of food waste produced each year, Guernsey Waste thinks around 150 tonnes will have to be dumped over the time that the processing plant is likely to be out of action.
“We have been processing food waste and exporting it for anaerobic digestion successfully since 2019 and have thankfully only experienced minor breakdowns in the equipment previously, mainly damage to the hardware when items such as rocks to weigh down caddies in bad weather have made their way into the waste stream,” said Sarah Robinson, Guernsey Waste’s Operations Manager.
“This fault is more technical and complex in nature and is requiring involvement from several parties to resolve it.
“Unfortunately, landfilling some of the decomposed waste is necessary to prevent compounding issues with future processing and ensure we have the capacity to continue accepting food waste deliveries.”
Despite the food waste being dumped, rather than being sent off island, everyone is asked to continue separating their food waste from general rubbish so that the usual treatment plans can be resumed as soon as possible.