St Andrews Links Blog

The Green Team

In line with new Waste Scotland Regulations coming into force, last year St Andrews Links set up a group of employees from across the organisation whose aim was to monitor and reduce the amount of waste material created throughout the site. The Green Team was formed!

Working to objectives of minimising the amount of waste sent to landfill and encouraging recycling across the Links, the team began by collecting data on waste including cardboard, metals and glass. Specialist machinery was then purchased. One such machine is the IVC (in vessel-composter) pictured in the header image. Housed in a central location for ease of access, this apparatus works by anaerobic digestion which is the process by which organic matter is broken down to produce biogas and bio fertiliser.

Our three Clubhouse restaurants along with all staff and public areas contribute to food waste which once collected, is weighed before being processed through a de-watering machine to reduce the overall weight. The waste is then weighed again and put into the main IVC. Wooden pellets, shavings and sawdust from our workshops are added to the IVC as a source of carbon which kick-starts the biological process.

Sawdust being collected in our workshop for use in the IVC.

The turnaround time for normal composting is anything up to 10 months but the time it takes to produce useable compost from the IVC is a highly impressive 6 weeks! The compost is then mixed with either soil or sand and used as a growing medium for flower beds and gardens around the Links. All green waste from the golf courses is composted and given away to the local community.

Final destination: the gardens at Pilmour House.

We’re delighted to say that the Green Team are well on track – St Andrews Links have significantly reduced the amount of waste sent to landfill and recycled 87% of it in 2014.

Words by James Hutchinson & Lindsay Webster