Waste firm Crapper and Sons’ is to launch the world’s first landfill gas powered fruit vegetable growing site, with crop trials starting from this Spring.

The produce is to be grown in inflated domes located on its landfill site in Royal Wooton Bassett, Wiltshire, with gases emitted turned into heat, power and CO2.

The “giant, positively pressured, inflated growing domes” are being launched through the firm’s community interest company Sustain Wiltshire.

The firm explains that “purified CO2, captured from the landfill gas-to-power process, will be pumped into the” domes to promote photosynthesis, “converting this problem greenhouse gas into harmless oxygen, while enhancing growing conditions”.

Meanwhile, heat and power from the landfill site will be used to alter the environment in the domes to allow “multi-cropping and the harvesting of everything from carrots to avocados, even in the depths of winter”.

Each dome is three times the size of a tennis court, twice the height of a double decker bus, and capable of producing 10 tonnes of fruit and vegetables.

It is hoped the domes will be able to supply 80% of fruit and vegetables for people living in Royal Wootton Basset, Purton and Brinkworth, with future expansion planned to cover Malmesbury.

“Rolled out globally, this technology has the potential to change the face of food production as we know it,” said Sustain Wiltshire and Crapper and Sons project director Nick Ash.

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