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New Zealand’s Defence Force is going green with a new initiative targeting the food waste it produces. It’s starting with the Navy, which as well as protecting our shores, is now making its own compost.

TVNZ’s OneNews reporter, Matt McLean, recently visited the Vince McGlone Galley at Devonport Naval Base and was pleasantly surprised at the standard of cuisine prepared there. Petty Officer Chef Simon Gillbanks explained what was on the menu that day. “We’ve got some pork loin, with apple and blue cheese coleslaw, pan-fried steak with a herb butter, and a Malaysian rendang curry.”

Welcome to the Navy, where apparently, they’re aiming for a Michelin star!

“This sounds very gourmet,” Matt remarked to Simon.

“We’ve got to do it flash, and keep the boys

[and girls] happy,” said Simon. “They’re never happy, some want a medium-rare steak, others want well-done!” Despite the routine grumbles, Matt checked in the galley dining room and found a high level of satisfaction.

But keeping the Navy well fed means the chefs are preparing up to 3,000 meals a week – that equates to 95 tonnes of food waste a year. “What to do with those scraps?” asked reporter Matt.

Until now, they’ve been carted off to the tip. But not any more thanks to Big Hanna.

Shaun Bowler, of Big Hanna Composter Ltd, explained how Big Hanna works. “She composts onsite and in a closed vessel, which means that instead of trucking food waste off your site, you’re actually turning it into rich, nutritious compost onsite.”

It takes around eight weeks for the food to get turned into compost.

Shaun Bowler continued, “Think of Big Hanna as a big gut. As the food passes through during that eight to ten week period, she goes through different zones of bacteria, until the process is finished. It’s a natural, biological process.”

The Navy is already seeing cost savings and environmental benefits. The Navy chefs have noted big waste reductions. There are now plans to expand it to other New Zealand Defence Force bases.

As TV reporter Matt concluded, “‘The Navy – clean, green and great chefs. Who knew?”

Article courtesy of TVNZ One News.

View the video at TVNZ: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/defence-force-go-green-video-6251078

This model, the 48th of its kind in the world, can process up to 170kg material a day, turning each load into compost in eight weeks. On start-up it was loaded with 600 litres horse manure as bacteria starter, 600l mature compost, and 50kg wood pellets as food source for the bacteria to induce the composting process. “It was quite an exercise getting hold of all that horse poo…in the end the Rosedale Pony Club horses did their duty to their country and obliged in time, but it was touch and go,” Mr Bowler says.

The approximate 10kg compost it now produces per day is moved to maturation bays at the Navy sports fields for later use on the base. It replaces the compost the Navy bought in earlier years in a perfect example of resources going a second round. As more food scraps are fed into it and Big Hanna reaches its full capacity, the amount of compost produced will increase, too.

Mr Bowler says Big Hanna’s operation is based on in-vessel composting technology, which differs from the open windrow technique commonly used in large-scale industrial composting sites. “Pests cannot get into it and odours are contained and managed, so it can process all food waste, including meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and citrus, working quietly and unobtrusively even if installed indoors,” he comments.

Big Hanna requires a small daily dose of wood pellets with every scrap food load. The Navy chefs put scrap food, excluding bones, through a macerator that shreds it finely and remove excess water, thereby optimising it for the composting process. They load the scraps into the infeed hopper, from where an augur takes it into the cylinder. The bacteria do their work in three phases in the cylinder.

First is the thermophilic phase where the high temperature resulting from the biological processes, 50 to 65 degrees C, completely sterilises the material and brings the moisture content of the material down by 40 to 70 percent. Second is the mesophilic phase where the temperature is between 25 and 45 degrees C and moisture content decreases further. Last is the maturation phase, where the temperature averages 20 degrees C and the moisture content all but disappears.

Big Hanna automates the aerobic composting process by aerating and turning the feedstock through rotating the composting cylinder on average one to two minutes per hour. The fan runs constantly at a low airflow. The ventilation system supplies air to the biological processes. The material is aerated when the air is pulled through the cylinder by the fan. The ventilation system contains odours. Usually used air is let into a sewage connection, but it can also be let into the atmosphere via the Hanna biofilter.

The cylinder is always 60 to 70 percent full and automatic emptying is done little by little on each anticlockwise rotation of the cylinder. It empties the compost directly into a plastic bag or offtake bin that is attached on the outlet pipe. Mr Bowler says product arising from good aerobic composting – in New Zealand, this means compliance with the NZS4454 composting standard – is naturally pasteurised during thermophilic decomposition. “Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. have not been detected in any analyses undertaken at Big Hanna sites,” he notes.

Four temperature sensors in the cylinder make it possible to monitor the composting process and if indicated the process can be manipulated – through changing the temperature, air flow, and rotation speed settings – at the machine’s control and display panel. Once Big Hanna is fully operational, it will also process food waste from the NES galley and wardroom, with the food waste capture from offices, barracks, Narrow Neck, and Torpedo Bay a future possibility. Different models of Big Hanna are available to suit a range of desired operational parameters.

Feature image of Royal New Zealand Navy ratings marching on New Zealand’s national day at Waitangi in 2013 courtesy of Shutterstock in association with The Natural Step New Zealand. Article courtesy of New Zealand Engineering News.

This African biodiversity hotspot also includes an oil-rich geological structure called the Albertine Grabben. The Ugandan Government is now overseeing prospecting and development of the Grabben’s oil riches while at the same time attempting to protect the livelihoods and homes of the people, animals and plants that call it home.

 

Big Hanna is now in service at two prospecting camps operated by Tullow Uganda Operations Pty in the Albertine Grabben. Each camp houses 200 people, each producing 2 kg of food waste each day through the canteens. Until recently this food waste was landfilled onsite, producing leachate with potential to contaminate nearby groundwater. In addition hazardous methane was generated, creating a potential fire hazard. Tullow Oil sought a better solution.

A feasibility study considered available technologies, economics, and environmental considerations, quantities and recommended Big Hanna in-vessel composting. Each camp, one at Kisinja and another at Buliisa, is now composting all food waste onsite with a Big Hanna T240 Composter equipped with a Big Hanna Biofilter.

Each canteen is also fitted with a Big Hanna Macerator-Dewaterer to reduce the food waste mass by 50% before composting – this makes the whole system more efficient.

Ugandan company NLS Waste undertook the installation and commissioning at both camps in one week, followed by onsite training from Big Hanna’s Cecilia Ek.

We hope that any development of this rich and beautiful area can be done sensitively, safely and carefully and we’re glad that Big Hanna can help.

Wildlife images courtesy of Shutterstock in association with The Natural Step New Zealand.

Montalto Ligure is a remote village with about 365 inhabitants, in North West Italy. An almost untouched place, the town is difficult to reach but very pretty. Now inhabitants have said ‘Basta!’ to garbage trucks spewing diesel fumes and chewing up their historic alleys. Lemon and Gina, a pair of donkeys, provide the ‘door to door waste collection’, carrying baskets loaded  with food waste, glass, cans etc. They complement an electric powered ‘porter’ vehicle, and completes the virtuous ‘zero impact’ circle. Almost all waste is now destined for recycling plants.

 

 To reduce food waste at source, a Big Hanna composter model T60 was installed. The Big Hanna will transform food waste into compost which will be used in the area.

The people of Montalto Ligure are now close to achieving Zero Waste – a huge achievement for a small town.

 

 

Photo of Lemon and Gina lookalikes (not actual donkeys) courtesy of Shutterstock in association with The Natural Step New Zealand.