Food on a landfill?

This story was first in the i newspaper and I snipped it out - partly because of the name of the company involved: Crapper and Sons Ltd. It turns out it was first proposed back in 2023 and has been in development since, but has met opposition despite it making ecological and commercial sense.

It's also an idea which makes sense: reusing land which is unsuitable for most other activities because of the potential for the release of methane.

The company already captures methane coming off the waste to power its operations and send energy to the national grid, as well as producing CO2. The plans involve using greenhouses on the site to take advantage of CO2 and heat to produce food such as avocados, which are not usually grown commercially in the UK.

It has set up a company called Sustain Wiltshire.

The Planning Application can be viewed here.

The project overall is called the Super Midden, based on midden - a word mostly used by archaeologists to describe ancient rubbish dumps. It will remove "3,800 tonnes of carbon emissions per year", while "generating sufficient heat and energy to produce affordable fruit and vegetables" for a number of north Wiltshire communities.

To make use of these sites would be a good idea.

Some more details on the circularity of the solution:

Using CO2 produced as a by-product to aid photosynthesis, the growing environment within the Super-Midden greenhouses can be accelerated or slowed down to meet demand. Combined with advanced modelling technology, this means that just-in-time demand-based fruit and vegetables can be grown and delivered to the doorstep. This innovative solution minimises the need for storage and food miles, reducing overheads and allowing fruit and vegetables to be produced at a lower cost than can be achieved by major supermarkets. Any waste food can be collected and processed for anaerobic digestion, enabling the generation of low-cost energy and fertiliser for use in the greenhouses to further perpetuate the sustainable, circular solution. Once perfected, the technology – which will be trialled in the next 12 months – will enable Sustain Wiltshire to supply 80% of all fruit and vegetable requirements for Royal Wootton Basset, Malmesbury, Purton and Brinkworth.

Source: My Green Pod