Dublin Jerome High School in Dublin, OH is combatting food waste by turning it into renewable energy. Jerome High School is the first K-12 school in the nation to receive a machine called Grind2Energy. The machine helps convert the school’s food waste scraps into renewable energy by turning food waste into natural gas and fertilizer.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency allocated $69,646 toward the machine and the Dublin City district contributed $17,412 for the machine. The machine collects food scraps, including fats, oils, bones and grease. Students and staff put their food scraps in designated trash cans in the cafeteria.
The scraps go into an industrial garbage disposal, which converts them into a food slurry. The slurry then goes into a 3,000-gallon tank. The slurry is taken to an anaerobic digestion facility, where the scraps are broken down and natural gas is collected. The remaining biosolids go to local farms where it can be used as fertilizer.