Leading independent school, Harrow School, has recycled food waste from off-cuts and plate scrapings over the last year into enough energy to power more than 300,000 lightbulbs. The school appointed the UK's leading food waste recycler, PDM Group 12 months ago to turn its food waste into energy as part of its drive for environmental excellence.
Established in 1572, Harrow School leads the way when it comes to innovation and is one of the first boarding schools to have a dedicated food waste recycling service. Ensuring it had the most sustainable solution available was paramount to Harrow School and the process offered by PDM meant that the school was able to deliver a two-fold environmental win, as not only is energy created, waste is also diverted from landfill.
Indeed, Harrow School has recycled almost 50 tonnes of food waste over 12 months, made up of the plate scrapings and off-cuts from the preparation of almost 2,500 meals each day and saved more than ten tonnes of CO2.
Julia Tyler, domestic bursar at Harrow School, commented: "Food waste recycling isn't confined to those with massive amounts of food waste such as retailers and food manufacturers. As we've recycled more and more of our waste, organic waste was the last and possibly the biggest challenge. While we constantly look at reducing the amount of waste at the outset, PDM has enabled us to make some significant environmental savings and the system has been easy to implement for our kitchen staff - which is always an important consideration as time is in short supply when providing three meals and snacks for more than 800 pupils and 300 staff every day."
Harrow School has invested in its own macerator which shreds all food waste. Kitchen staff dispose of food waste directly into the macerator which in turn feeds into PDM's bins which are collected each week.
Philip Simpson, commercial director of PDM commented: "Harrow School is making excellent progress in reducing and recycling its food waste. We're delighted to be working with the school and enabling it to make a positive environmental contribution and help the UK's drive for increased renewable energy sources."
PDM is the UK's leading food waste recycler which works with some of the UK's most well-known names including Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Tesco, the Savoy Hotel, the Environment Agency and E-On.