With fertiliser prices surging past €1,1000 a tonne – up from €200 just a few weeks ago – waste collectors and the agricultural industry are being urged to ‘join up’ to alleviate some of the emerging pressures that surround demand for fertiliser. 

Now, more than ever, is the time to collect and process food waste into quality compost and digestate so farmers can use them and avoid buying expensive fertilisers. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report estimates that Ireland generates approximately 1 million tonnes of food waste. We are currently collecting and processing under a third of this into quality compost and digestate which can be used in the agriculture as a soil improver, fertiliser replacement or as a peat replacement in the horticultural sector. 

Tony Breton (Chair of Cré) said “Ireland has to recognise the economic and environmental opportunities which are thrown away everyday as garden and food wastes. Quality composts and digestates are available today to supply nutrients and organic matter which benefit our soils whilst helping farmers avoid the costs of expensive fossil fuel based chemical fertilisers. I am calling on everyone in Ireland to recycle food and garden wastes with their waste collector; the resulting quality compost and digestate can then be used by Irish farmers locally to fertiliser their crops and sequester carbon in Irish farms. At a time when the Circular Economy Bill is being laid before the Oireachtas, we have today a real opportunity to realise the benefits by making our organic waste system circular”. 

Unlike many other waste collectors Thorntons Recycling owns and operates a compost processing facility. This means the food waste we collect from your brown bin stays with us until we produce compost from it and supply to local farmers, landscapers and community gardens.

About Cré – Composting and Anaerobic Digestion Association of Ireland CLG 

Established in 2001, Cré is the Composting and Anaerobic Digestion Association of Ireland. Cré (which is the Irish word for ‘soil’), is a non-profit association of public and private organisations, dedicated to growing the biological treatment sector. Cré supports the production of high-quality outputs, assists the delivery of Government waste diversion and bioenergy targets, and promotes the creation of sustainable indigenous jobs.