Leading independent waste management company has employed a high tech solution to measure its compost production - robotic probes.
Premier Waste Management processes garden waste from businesses and local authorities across the North East, turning the garden clippings and grass cuttings in to a compost that can be resold to businesses across the region.
Premier Waste is one of a few composters in the region to make PAS100 compost, which is a specific grade of high quality compost. Making PAS100 compost takes a total of six weeks and requires accurate temperature monitoring to ensure the natural process of composting is taking place at the required speed to reach the quality standards.
To increase the accuracy of the measuring Premier Waste Management has introduced DiO Store-Temp robotic temperature probes, to measure and assess the natural biological activity of microbes as they break down the plant material in to compost.
Positioned at eight metre intervals within the rows of compostable material, the probes remain in place throughout the process measuring the core temperature across four points in each windrow on a continuous basis. The temperature results are beamed to a computer in the compost office. The windrows need to exceed 65 Celsius for seven out of the first 14 days to achieve PAS100 accreditation.
Darren Smith, General Manager at Premier Waste commented: "The use of the DiO Store-Temp robotic temperature monitoring system has brought us a new understanding of the composting process. The system does not sleep and records data continuously this means we are getting a much better picture of what is happening inside the compost pile and we can see how environmental factors are affecting the compost."