This Halloween, Severn Trent Green Power expects to receive around 100,000 used pumpkins at their 10 food waste anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities across the Midlands, Home Counties, South Wales and South West.
Green Power estimates that it will make around 77 megawatt hours of spook-tacular clean energy from the leftover pumpkins, enough to power more than 10,000 homes for a whole day.
In addition to encouraging everyone to recycle their pumpkins, this year, Green Power also wants to share an important message about how we can play a part in creating a circular economy and a cleaner future for all in a new video that charts the lifecycle of a pumpkin.
The video follows Patch the Pumpkin as he begins life as a seed in a garden, grows into a full-sized pumpkin and transforms into a happy jack-o’-lantern to join in the festivities, before being discarded and left to be picked up by a food waste collection vehicle.
As Patch arrives at one of Green Power’s food waste AD facilities waiting to find out his fate, he’s tipped into the bunker and is overjoyed when he realises he will be recycled into clean energy that powers many homes across the country, as well as creating digestate which farmers can use as an organic fertiliser to grow more food that will end up back on our tables.
Andrew Simm, Operations Director at Severn Trent Green Power, said: “We hope viewers enjoy watching Patch the Pumpkin’s journey as his adventures unfold and he returns to life as renewable energy. Food waste is a fundamentally important energy source as the UK commits to generating 100% clean power by 2030.
“We’d encourage everyone to recycle their unwanted pumpkins to prevent them from going to a less sustainable disposal fate. At Green Power, we turn them into something good and useful through the anaerobic digestion process.”
There’s no witchcraft when it comes to AD. The process mimics that of a giant stomach. Food waste is tipped at our sites, before being macerated and added to liquid. Contaminants are removed.
The liquefied food is contained in digesters for around three months. Meanwhile, we capture the biogas it emits and turn this into biomethane, resulting in clean, renewable energy for the grid.
The remaining ‘digestate’ is pasteurised and filtered, before heading to farmland to help grow new crops – effectively using food waste to grow a new generation of food.
Food waste recycling in England will soon become the norm for food and drink businesses, as a Government mandate will soon come into effect in March 2025. Green Power is optimistic that awareness of the benefits of recycling food waste will continue to grow, paving the way for a greener future for all.
Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC8AeGAjJzo
