A RECYCLING and green energy business has won a new £14million contract to dispose of tens of thousands of tonnes of Dorset’s waste.

Eco Sustainable Solutions was chosen to continue composting and treating 15,000 tonnes of food waste and 35,000 tonnes of green waste.

Its deal with Dorset Council also includes 8,000 tonnes of wood and 3,500 tonnes of council street sweepings.

Eco, based at Chapel Lane near Bournemouth Airport, will carry on supporting the council’s recycling and carbon reduction efforts.

The food waste is taken to Eco’s anaerobic digestion plant in Piddlehinton, where it is processed to produce digestate, a nitrogen-rich agricultural fertiliser, and methane, which generates energy to feed into the national grid.

The green waste, wood waste and street sweepings will be treated at the company’s Parley site to produce renewable energy and sustainable landscaping products.

Cllr Tony Alford, the council’s cabinet member for customer, community and regulatory services, said: “Our Recycle for Dorset service has seen kerbside recycling increase dramatically, from 29 per cent in 2011 to just shy of 60 per cent in 2018/19.

“The recycling of organic materials – food, green and wood waste – is key to this success and Eco Sustainable Solutions will continue to be an important partner in helping Dorset Council deliver its waste strategy in this new decade.”

Eco’s commercial director, Peter Hardy, said: “It makes commercial and environmental sense for local authorities to recycle their citizens’ waste as close to home as possible.

“We are proud to be able to offer Dorset Council the full range of recycling facilities, creating energy from waste and a range of quality, sustainable products for the landscaping and construction sectors.”

Eco Sustainable Solutions was founded in 1993 by Trelawney Dampney, who started taking in landscapers’ green waste for composting at Parley.

The family-owned business now has a turnover of around £20m and has expanded into food waste processing for energy production, the building of a combined heat and power (CHP) biomass facility and a 380-acre solar development.

It won its contract with Dorset Waste Partnership – now a function of Dorset Council – to handle the county’s food, wood and green waste in 2008.