Food Waste Compass

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Food Waste Compass

Anaerobic digestion estimate

For food waste going to an anaerobic digestion plant: rough methane potential, potential avoided fossil-gas emissions and separate transport carbon.

Product

Customer name/reference

Movement date

1. Nutrition values per 100 g

Copy from the "per 100 g" column, not the per-serving column. Enter 0 if the label shows 0.

Food reference (optional)

Fat

g

Carbohydrate

g

Protein

g

Fibre

g

Sugars and saturates are already inside carbohydrate and fat, so they are not entered again.

2. Load

Load weight

kg

Packaging

%

Net weight of product excluding packaging

kg

Load weight minus packaging — the food itself.

Packaging is the share of the load weight that is tins, jars, film or pallets. Leave blank for none.

3. Fossil gas replacement (share used after plant losses and internal use)

Share of produced methane replacing fossil gas

%

100% is an upper-bound illustration. Reduce this for leakage, upgrading losses, internal consumption and gas that does not replace fossil natural gas; use 0 if none does.

4. Transport

Vehicle

One-way distance

km

Estimate

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Estimated methane per tonne of food

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Potential avoided fossil gas emissions (methane) — per tonne of food

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(Methane released into the atmosphere has a significantly greater warming effect than carbon dioxide, so preventing leaks matters.)

Estimated methane for the load

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Potential avoided fossil gas emissions (methane) — per load

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(Methane released into the atmosphere has a significantly greater warming effect than carbon dioxide, so preventing leaks matters.)

Transport carbon

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Illustrative estimate—not for reporting. Assumes 80% of theoretical methane is produced, then 100% replaces fossil gas. Methane used × 10 kWh/Nm³ × 0.18 kg CO₂e/kWh (your rough assumptions, not verified factors).

This is not a net carbon saving. AD processing, leakage emissions, packaging and other plant impacts are not deducted. Transport stays separate. Methane production alone does not establish avoided emissions.

Estimates assume food in the condition described by the label or reference values. Age, decay, mould, damaged packaging, contamination, storage conditions and plant operation may reduce actual gas yield.

Rough estimate. Methane per tonne = fat × 10.14 + carbohydrate × 4.15 + protein × 4.96 + fibre × 4.15 (g per 100 g). That is theoretical potential, treating all fibre as digestible; 80% production is a working assumption, not a verified plant average or guaranteed yield.