Utah contributes about 1.2 billion pounds of food waste per year and one company is trying to use the trash to bring power to residents in the community. Momentum Recycling has been gathering bins full of food waste since 2021 across Salt Lake City. They have gained momentum with just under 500 customers and say their unique approach to reusing waste is becoming more popular.
“After the pandemic, we were able to start with a couple of small pilot neighborhoods just to test it, and make sure it would work for residential service,” explained John Lair, President and CEO of the company. “Happily it did. We’ve had a lot of inquiries, a lot of interest. And we’re now starting the process of expanding the service to the rest of the city.”
Individual homes, bars restaurants, grocery stores and event convention centers use the service. “Our goal as a company is to divert as much material away from the landfill as possible, Lair explained. “So we can extend the life of the landfill, we can see the material put to its best use, in this case, energy.” Food waste from Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and even California and Montana is brought to Wasatch Resource Recovery in North Salt Lake, where the process begins.