Northern Ireland waste management company RiverRidge has introduced two new food waste vehicles to its fleet of 95 vehicles. 

In April, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency set out further food waste legislation in an attempt to regulate the amount of food waste sent to landfill by businesses.

The outcome has meant any business producing more than 5kg of food leftovers now must dispose of it in a separate bin for collection.

RiverRidge says its recent investment helps highlight its continued pledge to the ever-increasing demand for food waste recycling.

Tony Kirkpatrick, transport and logistics director of RiverRidge, said: “As regulations continue to intensify, the vehicle model choice was critical. In order to help evolve RiverRidge’s current food waste collection strategy, we have purchased two new MacPac 110S vehicles, which are specifically designed for the collection of food waste and will be operated by our experienced crew.

“As more businesses realise the commercial benefits of diverting food waste from landfill in terms of reduced waste costs, it was imperative for us to select a vehicle model that had a sufficient capacity to contain the amount of food waste that is now collected on a daily basis by RiverRidge.”

He added: “The MacPac food waste vehicles have an on-board weighing system, which allows our operators to know exactly what each bin weighs and also the total weight in the vehicle.”

Now based across four sites in Belfast, Coleraine, Derry-Londonderry and Portadown, RiverRidge has the ability to service 95% of Northern Ireland’s postcodes directly.