A lecture by Dr James Chong, Department of Biology, University of York. The UK population flushes more than one million tonnes of organic material down its sewers every year. Through the process of anaerobic digestion, this waste has the potential for energy to be reclaimed and for much of the organic material to be recycled into useful resources. This lecture will explain how cutting-edge analytical methods are being used to better understand the possibilities of anaerobic digestion.