Legal Regulations

What the law says: Animal By-products Regulations
Composting has become regulated with lots of rules about how it should be done, but under certain circumstances the rules are waived, with things called 'exemptions' and 'exceptions' such as the 'T23 exemption', the 'paragraph 12 exemption', and a 'T26 exemption'.
The reason is that rotting food could spread diseases, and one way it could spread diseases is if farm animals get to eat any of it, and then we eat the farm animals.  Another way might just be good old fashioned Samonella growing on it, and being spread by rats, flies or just the wind.
On a small domestic scale, I don't think the authorities are too interested, but when we scale it up is when there could be a risk.


There is a presumption that food waste should be composted in vessel,  and that a temperature of  70 degrees C should be achieved for a certain period of time. This is in order to kill off pathogens that could be in food waste, in particular salmonella and foot and mouth disease.

But there is an exception to this which is that it can be composted at a lower temperature, such as in a wormery, as long as this is done on the site (premises) that the food waste was created, (i.e. it cannot be transported) as long as there are no ruminant animals or pigs there, and as long as the compost that is created is used on the same site. (If there are chickens on the site, it must be contained with no access by the birds to the composting material.) This is contained in Regulation 16 of the Animal By-products Regulations (ABPR) 2003.

The practical result of this is that kitchen waste from a school can be composted in the school grounds, a hotel can compost its kitchen waste in its garden, and so on, in a way that may not reach a high temperature.* see below

This regulation of catering waste was due to precautions that followed the foot and mouth disease of hoofed animals, in 2001, as the outbreak arose from the feeding of sheep products to cows. Hence the worries about animal’s ingesting other bits of animals and so spreading disease.

The other concern is the spread of prions ( a deformed protein from the nervous tissue of diseased animals) that cause mad cow disease, and BSE in humans. So any animal products in the food waste, or just in the same kitchen, means that more stringent rules apply in its handling and composting. For example, it must achieve a certain temperature for a certain amount of time, in order to kill off any disease pathogens. This usually involves in-vessel hot composting, through which the spread of disease through the air (in aerosol form, or dust....) is reduced by containment, and in which thermophilic bacterial action, and/or electrical heating ensure the high temperature is achieved.

I assume that food waste from a vegan kitchen would not be regarded as being potentially contaminated by animal by-products, and so could be transported and composted without these concerns. And food waste from a greengrocers’, like wise.

But any big composting operations have got to comply with Environment Agency rules on waste; and this regards contamination of water ways or ground-water by leachate, as well as potential odours and nuisance.



* From the Community Compsoting Network web site:
The ABPR are separate regulations from the environmental permitting regulations and are policed by Animal Health (previously the State Veterinary Service). The most important aspect of complying with the ABPR is that your composting system meets the very strict time, particle size temperature requirements of the legislation. For most community composters this will require using either an in-vessel composter or an anaerobic digester. If you want more information about the ABPR get in contact with your local Animal Health Office or CCN.
However, Regulation 16 of the APBR states that the regulations "do not apply to the composting of category 3 catering waste on the premises on which it originates provided that:
(a) the decomposed material is only applied to land at those premises
(b) no ruminant animals or pigs are kept at the premises
(c) if poultry is kept at the premises the material is composted in a secure container which prevents the poultry having access to it during decomposition."
In simple terms, this means that you are  exemption from the APBR if you are composting in an "on-site" situation i.e. the waste is produced on site, composted on site, and the finished compost is used on site.The principal purpose of regulation 16 was to allow home composting - but there are other situations in which the exemption can apply for example: schools, hospitals and prisons. Click here to access the DEFRA guidance on composting and ABPR (.pdf 125KB).
*the DEFRA Q&A states that "the regulations make no distinction for catering waste which is only vegetable matter...although in theory there would be no need to control purely vegetable catering waste provided its source could be verified as originating from a kitchen handling only vegan food".

T26 Treatment of kitchen waste in a wormery
If you are using a small-scale wormery to process kitchen waste and produce compost you will need to apply for a T26 exemption.
With this exemption you can:
i.   treat up to 6 tonnes of paper and cardboard (20 01 01) and
ii.  biodegradable kitchen and canteen waste (municipal, commercial, industrial and    institutional) (20 01 08)
iii. during a twelve month period to
iv. produce a stable sanitised vermicompost.
If your kitchen waste comes from a premise which handles meat or products of animal origin you will need to comply with the Animal By Product Regulations. Unfortunately food waste treated in a wormery will not meet the temperature requirements of the ABPR, so you may only be able to use a T26 on an on-site situation i.e. where the food waste is produced on-site, treated on-site and the finished compost is used on site. It's best to discuss your own particular circumstances with your local Animal health Office.