Merchant Taylors’ School
Sector: Education
Equipment: A900 Rocket Composter and Dehydra Dewaterer
The backstory
Originally founded in 1561, Merchant Taylors’ School in an independent school for boys located in Northwood, Greater London and is one of the ‘great nine’ schools in England. The site itself occupies a 285-acre estate.
The challenge
The school noticed that its general waste disposal costs were rising sharply, despite there being no more waste than normal produced. The reason for this was that waste collectors were moving towards a ‘measured at site’ maximum permissible bin weight model – meaning any general waste bins exceeding 80kgs were being charged as an excess. And in some instances, this tripled or quadrupled collection costs – and wet food waste was found to be the root cause of the heavy bins.
The school was also aware that legislation would be likely to change in the near future – replicated from the rules in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland – so they needed a solution that would effectively deal with the macerated and landfilled food waste.
The solution
The school invested in a Dehydra Dewaterer system – which can reduce food waste volume by up to 80% and its weight by 50% – and an A900 Rocket Composter, to convert the waste into a valuable compost resource.
The Dehydra is located in the school’s kitchen and shreds and dehydrates the waste, to separate the solid and liquid material – the former of which is used in the composter and the latter is disposed of in the main sewer.
The Rocket is located in the on-site growing area and is looked after by the gardening team. The equipment not only allows them to close the loop and recycle their food waste at source, but it also speeds up their traditional composting of clippings taken off the sports fields, and allows them to save money on expensive off-site disposal costs.