Food waste recycling is on the rise, yet today’s infrastructure has not kept up with demand for new end destinations.

By Ryan Cooper

America is a big producer of food waste—and while reduction and donation are key strategies, the amount we discard is likely to remain considerable. In fact, Americans currently throw away about 66.5 million tons of food annually (*Source: USDA) on the retail and consumer level alone.
Currently, most of America’s food waste takes up room in landfills. Landfills may be referred to as waste disposal, but in reality, they are simply storing our refuse in time capsules. Not only will these “time capsules” hang around well into the future, but they are also releasing harmful greenhouse gases into the environment today.

There is a groundswell movement to keep food out of the landfills, and the public and private sectors alike are getting on board. Yet even with a shift toward food scrap reduction, there will still be a significant amount of waste for the foreseeable future. So where will all that food waste go?
Turning food scraps into compost has been, and remains, one of the most important ways to convert this waste stream into a resource. However, we are in an exciting phase where municipalities, recycling facilities, haulers and even the most unlikely suspects are innovating and investing in organics recycling destinations that include composting as well as a range of other technologies. Here is what you can expect, and ways to capitalize on the post-landfill “land grab” of food waste recycling.

foodartFlushing Food Waste Down the Drain
You are probably already familiar with anaerobic digestion (AD), a biological process that breaks down food waste and converts it into renewable natural gas. AD has become a popular way to recycle food waste in recent years. Even so, you may be surprised to learn that more than 1,200 water resource recovery facilities (WRRF) across the country already have anaerobic digesters.1

Cities are looking for ways to tap into existing infrastructure to save costs while implementing food waste recycling programs. With these AD facilities already in place at many wastewater treatment plants, there is the potential to grind food up and send it down the drain to be processed. Some cities are encouraging sink disposal systems, essentially motivating residents to send their food waste to the wastewater treatment plant.
This is not just a (literal) pipe dream. It is already happening in Los Angeles, where the city is using its sewer system to transport food waste to its water reclamation plant. Los Angeles was one of the first wastewater treatment plants in the country to capture energy from biogas using an anaerobic digester, and now it is one of the first to use its existing processing capabilities to handle food waste in addition to wastewater byproducts.

It is too soon to tell if the sewer systems and anaerobic digesters will be able to handle the change in composition of the materials being conveyed through the sewers and ending up at AD facilities located at WRRFs. At scale, this could significantly impact local haulers by dramatically reducing the need for above ground food waste transportation. However, there may still be the opportunity to haul the resulting digestate.

This will be an important trend to monitor. It may benefit haulers to reach out to their local wastewater treatment plants to form a relationship. Discuss any changes the plant may have recently experienced, and the potential for taking in organics such as food waste. There is a good chance they may see an increase in digestate production in the coming years as they receive more food scraps and FOG (fat, oils and grease).

Multi-Million-Dollar Investments in Digesters
Wastewater treatment plants are far from the only ones who have invested in anaerobic digesters. AD facilities are popping up across the country, particularly in states with food waste regulations like California and Massachusetts.

Even haulers are looking to the future by developing their own AD facilities, like CR&R Environmental Services in Southern California. CR&R just completed phase one of its $100 million, 10-year project in 2017, marking the launch of one of the largest AD facilities in the world. When all four phases are complete, the digester will have the capacity to process 335,000 tons of waste per year and convert it to 260,000 tons of fertilizer and 4 million gallons of renewable natural gas.

Also, in 2017, Chicago’s Lakeshore Recycling Facilities launched its own aerobic digester. Unlike anaerobic processes, the aerobic digester pumps oxygen into the organic matter. This process creates fertilizer without the space requirements and odor issues of a typical compost operation.
While most haulers do not have the capital to build their own AD facility, particularly of the $100 million variety, there are other ways to invest in organics recycling equipment. Depackagers take a smaller upfront investment while providing a big financial opportunity for haulers.

Packaged food waste is a huge problem, because it is difficult to separate the surplus food from the packaging. This material is a perfect candidate for donation, but if the food is going to recycling, it must be separated from the packaging first. In some cases, the packaging can even be recycled, generating a revenue stream. Even if haulers do not run their own organics recycling facility, they can play an important role in the collection and preprocessing of the material.

Maximizing Supply Chains
There are several companies who are using food waste to maximize existing supply chains, like fertilizer production and delivery for farmers. California Safe Soils, for example, has developed new technology that converts food waste into fertilizer in hours instead of weeks or months.
By creating a liquid fertilizer, the end product of that recycled food waste can be easier and more affordable to transport and apply. Farmers can use existing spray trucks to apply the liquid fertilizer on a large scale.

One company in South Africa has developed a creative way to use food waste to meet the needs of a different type of farmer. Aquaculture, or fish farming, today requires highly unsustainable fish meal, which is devastating our overfished oceans.

The company, AgriProtein, feeds food waste to black soldier fly larva, which eat up the food scraps at an incredible rate as they increase their weight more than 200 times in just 10 days. The company then turns the larvae into a sustainable protein meal that can replace traditional fish food. Just last year, AgriProtein announced its plans to build 20 fly farms in the U.S. and Canada.

Unique Partnerships and Destinations
Even unlikely organizations are getting in on the food waste revolution by creating their own recycling facilities, like Gundersen Health System in Wisconsin. The health system has invested in new infrastructure to become energy independent, including a large-scale AD project. The hospital processes its own food waste, along with cow manure from nearby farms and other material from food manufacturers and area grocery stores.
As the food waste landscape shifts away from the landfill, these types of unique partnerships and unlikely destinations will become even more important. Food scraps have to go somewhere—and someone has to take it there. By keeping an eye on the industry and an ear to the groundswell, haulers and recyclers can stay ahead of the curve to thrive in a food waste recycling world.

Ryan M. Cooper, LEED GA, is the Waste Diversion Manager, Organics Recycling Lead, for Rubicon Global (Atlanta, GA). Prior to developing and managing organics recycling programs at Rubicon Global, Ryan worked at GreenBlue, where he was a Project Associate for the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), administering an EPA sustainable materials management grant project called Scaling Up Composting in the Charlotte Region. Ryan holds a position on the Membership Committee of the U.S. Composting Council. He can be reached at [email protected].
Note
1. www.epa.gov/anaerobic-digestion/types-anaerobic-digesters#WRRFdigesters.

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