Climate, Nature & Carbon
Waste, Anaerobic Digestion & Circular Economy
Duty of care, digestate value and the honest case against building your own plant.
Farm waste is a compliance obligation with a hidden nutrient and energy value inside it. This module manages waste duty of care and disposal routes, values manures and digestate as fertiliser rather than as a problem, and appraises anaerobic digestion honestly — including the cases where the feedstock simply is not there.
- 12 capabilities
- 3 linked schemes
- Offline capable
- 12
- Capabilities in this module
- 5
- Interactive tools
- 3
- Linked support schemes
- 5
- Data integrations
- 5
- Measures reported
The ground reality
What is actually happening in waste & circular in the UK
Anaerobic digestion requires large, continuous feedstock volumes and a heat offtake to make the economics work; viable farm-scale systems are typically modelled around substantial dairy herds plus additional waste streams. Most holdings lack that feedstock scale, which makes a feedstock or digestate partnership a better position than an own-build. Meanwhile duty of care obligations apply to every waste movement regardless of scale.
Figures are as published at the time of writing. Farm policy and payment rates change frequently — verify against the primary source before relying on any number here.
In the field
Waste & circular, as it actually looks
Photography from working UK holdings alongside the interface that records it. Every frame below is a commissioned slot: the brief is stated until the photograph is taken.
Waste & Circular — a walkthrough
A working pass through waste & circular: entering the record once, and watching it appear in the evidence pack, the calendar and the scheme application without being typed again.
- 0:00 What the module is for
- 0:48 Entering the record
- 2:05 Where it appears next
- 3:20 The evidence pack
Photography slots state their own brief until the shot is commissioned, so the layout never shifts when real images arrive.
Capabilities
What Waste & Circular does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Waste stream register by type, volume and disposal route
- Duty of care documentation and waste transfer note management
- Hazardous waste consignment note handling
Operate and monitor
- Farm plastics, tyre and packaging recycling route management
- Manure and slurry nutrient valuation as substitute fertiliser
- Digestate import and export agreements with analysis records
Comply and evidence
- Anaerobic digestion feasibility appraisal with honest feedstock assessment
- Feedstock supply and offtake partnership modelling
- Composting and in-vessel treatment planning
Analyse and improve
- Surplus food redistribution and by-product valorisation
- Silage effluent and dirty water management compliance
- Circular economy opportunity identification across the enterprise mix
Interactive
Tools you actually use, not screens you read
These are working interfaces inside the module — maps, calculators, planners and dashboards that respond to your own holding data.
Waste stream dashboard with volumes, routes and compliance status
Waste stream dashboard with volumes, routes and compliance status
DashboardManure nutrient value calculator against current fertiliser prices
Manure nutrient value calculator against current fertiliser prices
CalculatorAnaerobic digestion feasibility calculator with feedstock reality checking
Anaerobic digestion feasibility calculator with feedstock reality checking
CalculatorDuty of care document checker before a waste movement
Duty of care document checker before a waste movement
WizardBy-product valorisation opportunity finder
By-product valorisation opportunity finder
ToolEnd to end
How Waste & Circular runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Register every waste stream
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Assign compliant disposal or recovery routes
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
-
3
Generate and retain duty of care documentation
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Value manures and digestate as nutrients
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Appraise anaerobic digestion honestly against feedstock
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Contract feedstock or digestate partnerships where appropriate
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Monitor volumes and costs
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
-
8
Identify further circular opportunities
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Who uses it
Built around four real jobs, not one generic user
Each of these people needs something different from the same record. The module is designed so none of them has to work around the others.
Mixed farmer
Multiple waste streams
Needs duty of care documentation right for every movement.
Dairy farmer
Large slurry volume
Needs slurry valued as fertiliser in the nutrient plan.
Anaerobic digestion operator
Feedstock sourcing
Needs reliable feedstock contracts and digestate offtake.
Regulator
Waste compliance
Needs transfer notes and consignment records available.
Schemes and funding
Support schemes this module works with
Agrivencia holds these schemes as data, so eligibility, payment rates, caps and windows update the day they change rather than at the next software release.
Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Fund additional slurry storage and covers to meet regulatory requirements and reduce pollution.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandImproving Farm Productivity Grant
Support investment in robotics, automation and on-farm energy that raises productivity.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandFarming Transformation Fund
Fund larger capital projects that transform farm productivity, water management or value addition.
Defra / Rural Payments AgencyRates, caps and windows change frequently and sometimes without notice. Always confirm against the current published scheme rules before applying.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Waste movements with complete documentation
- 02Nutrient value recovered from manures
- 03Waste cost per hectare
- 04Recycling rate
- 05Feedstock contract value
Payment schedule
What is due, and when it lands
Farm support arrives in instalments from several bodies on different calendars. Set against your own overdraft, the question is not how much but when — so the ledger is ordered by date, not by scheme.
| When | Payment | From | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | Slurry Infrastructure Grant | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Expected |
| June | Improving Farm Productivity Grant | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Agreed |
| February | Farming Transformation Fund | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
| June | Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
| March | Countryside Stewardship | Defra / Natural England / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
| June | Environmental Land Management Capital Grants | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
- — Agreed and scheduled
- — Claimed, awaiting payment
- — Eligible, unclaimed
What the statuses mean
- Agreed
- Under a signed agreement with a scheduled payment date.
- Expected
- Claimed and assessed; payment date per the published standard.
- Eligible
- Your holding appears to qualify but nothing is claimed yet.
Benchmarking
How this compares with businesses like yours
A cohort is only useful if it is genuinely comparable, so it is built from farm type, soil grade, region and scale rather than from whoever happens to have signed up. Your own figure is never shown to anyone else.
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Waste movements with complete documentation
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 34 Median 55 Upper quartile 70
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Nutrient value recovered from manures
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 26 Median 61 Upper quartile 74
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Waste cost per hectare
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 21 Median 61 Upper quartile 77
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Recycling rate
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 37 Median 52 Upper quartile 72
-
Feedstock contract value
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 39 Median 54 Upper quartile 72
How the cohort is built
- Farm type
- Matched
- Soil grade
- Matched
- Region
- Matched
- Scale band
- Matched
- Cohort size
- Minimum 12 businesses, or no comparison is shown
Questions answered
What people ask about Waste & Circular
Does this replace the software I already use?
Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.
Will it work where I have no signal?
Yes. Field capture in Waste & Circular is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.
What happens when the scheme rules change?
Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.
Who owns the data I put in?
You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.
Does it work if I farm across a border?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.
Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?
Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.
What is the biggest limitation of this module?
Duty of care breach. Mitigated by document generation at the point of movement. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.
Documents
Take it away with you
Everything here is printable and works on a kitchen table with no signal. Where a document asks for an email address, it says so on the button rather than after you press it.
Duty of Care and Digestate Value: Farm Waste as an Asset and an Obligation
The practical handbook for waste & circular: what the rules require, what the evidence has to show, and the mistakes that cost people money.
waste & circular — evidence checklist
Every document an audit or a claim asks for, in the order it is asked for, with the validity period of each.
waste & circular — record template
The record structure the module uses, as a spreadsheet, so a business not yet on the platform can start keeping it correctly today.
Data model reference
Entities, fields and integration points for waste & circular, for advisers and software partners.
See Waste & Circular running on your own holding
Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.
- Free tier available
- No card required
- Your data stays yours