Food waste may go to landfill after plant fault

More than 100 tonnes of food waste could be sent to landfill after the island's processing plant broke down.

The plant at Longue Hougue is used to prepare waste from homes and businesses before it is sent off the island to undergo a process called anaerobic digestion, where it is broken down by bacteria.

Work to fix the plant has been ongoing since 21 April, but Guernsey Waste said the only viable short-term solution was to send an estimated 150 tonnes of the oldest food waste - accumulated over one-and-a-half weeks - to the landfill site at Mont Cuet.

The States said it had identified the fault with the plant and it was hoped food processing could continue "by the end of next week".

Sarah Robinson, Guernsey Waste's operations manager, said the fault was more complex than previous breakdowns.

"We have been processing food waste and exporting it for anaerobic digestion successfully since 2019," she said.

"Thankfully we have only experienced minor breakdowns in the equipment [which was] mainly damage to the hardware.

"This fault is more technical and complex in nature and is requiring involvement from several parties to resolve it."

Ms Robinson said the use of landfill would reduce pressure on efforts to process waste.

"Unfortunately, landfilling some of the decomposed waste is necessary to prevent compounding issues with future processing," she said.

Islanders were being asked to continue separating food and general waste as normal.

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