There have been calls for waste collectors and the agricultural industry to join forces and utilise Ireland’s food waste resources to help alleviate the fertiliser crisis.

According to the Composting and Anaerobic Digestion Association of Ireland (Cré), the country generates approximately one million tonnes of food waste.

However, currently just under one third of this is collected and either composted or fed into anaerobic digestion plants to produce digestate.

Speaking on the matter, Cré chair Tony Breton said: “Ireland has to recognise the economic and environmental opportunities which are thrown away every day as garden and food wastes.”

“I am calling on everyone in Ireland to recycle food and garden wastes with their waste collector. The resulting compost and digestate can then be used by Irish farmers locally to fertilise their crops and sequester carbon in Irish farms.”