Composting firm based at Airfield Estate has closed, leaving council to suspend its food waste collections
A COMPOSTING depot that handles food waste from several councils around the country has closed, according to Derbyshire Dales District Council.
The “permanent closure” of Vital Earth, on the Airfield Industrial Estate, has led to the temporary suspension of food waste collections in the Derbyshire Dales this week.
The family-run company, based in Blenheim Road, employs around 30 members of staff and focuses on waste management, sustainable agriculture and green roofs, where rooftops are turned into garden features.
The firm uses waste, including tonnes collected from local authorities to create sustainable composts, fertilisers and other products at its £10 million Ashbourne site which opened in 2006.
Vital Earth has, for a number of years, recycled food and garden waste from Derbyshire Dales collections to make compost, used in horticulture and sold in bags at local garden centres.
Other clients include Derbyshire County Council and South Derbyshire District Council, as well as Stoke-on-trent City Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.
On Monday, Derbyshire Dales District Council issued an update to report Vital Earth’s “permanent closure” which will have a knock-on effect on food waste collections in the area for at least four weeks.
The update, which was posted on the local authority’s Facebook page just after 5pm on Monday reads: “The permanent closure today (February 28) of the privately-owned Vital Earth reprocessing facility in
Ashbourne means Derbyshire Dales residents are being asked for the next four weeks to mix food waste in their domestic waste containers.
“All food caddy collections are paused from tomorrow (March 1).”
The district council also moved to apologise in advance for any inconvenience which will be caused by the disruption.
A spokesperson said: “While Derbyshire Dales District Council remains one of the few councils locally to offer separate food waste collections, we apologise for the temporary inconvenience to our residents.”
The district council has been negotiating with Serco on the new arrangements and has identified alternative recycling sites in the north and south of Derbyshire that will take the district’s garden waste, which means garden waste collections continue unchanged for residents on bin collections.
The spokesperson added: “Unfortunately while one of the new sites will accept garden waste in compostable sacks, the other will not and we cannot split the Dales into separate collection areas.
“Residents on sack collection rounds who subscribe to our garden waste scheme have already received a direct communication from the council about this.”
The district council has identified an alternative option for food waste disposal and will update residents on this in four weeks when operational details have been finalised with Serco.
Vital Earth has been approached for comment to find out more about the reasons behind its “permanent closure”, but we have had no response at the time of going to press.
While we are one of the few councils to offer food waste collections, we apologise for the inconvenience.