An EU report from 2010 estimated that food waste in the EU27 was 89 million tonnes per year (equivalent to 179 kg per person) rising to 126 million tonnes per annum by 2020, this waste would generate 170 million tonnes of CO2 per annum, equivalent to 3 % of all EU27 Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

Food waste itself is a difficult waste fraction to manage as it is wet and putrescible and becomes odorous, is a wasteful resource and ultimately a health hazard. The PlasCarb project will convert food waste into biogas a mixture of methane (CH4), Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and impurities using Anaerobic Digestion (AD) technology. The biogas from the food waste will be monitored over a period of 12 months in order to assess the volumes of biogas produced, the amounts of methane, carbon dioxide and impurities produced based on seasonal variations. Also a process will be assessed for the economical viability for the removal of trace impurities from the biogas.