Waste Expo Part I: Food Fight Over Food Waste

Thirteen percent—more than 30 million tons—of the municipal solid waste collected in 2007 was food waste. This comes from our homes and from restaurants, of course, and from food production facilities. Right now, around 3 of that 13 percent is diverted from landfills and used for other purposes—most often for composting.

These are among the many food facts I gleaned from an educational session called “Food Waste: Compost, Digest or Other Use?” at Waste Expo, a solid waste industry conference held this week in Las Vegas. Two things are clear: food that lands in landfills is food wasted, but just what to do with all those food scraps is a matter of a debate.

Broadly, food can be turned into one of two things: energy or compost. Sometimes it is turned into both. Last summer, Jen wrote a post about how food waste is turned into compost and energy by Northern California’s Jepson Organics . And just east of San Francisco, the East Bay Municipal Utility District—like many other waste water treatment plants around the country—use anaerobic digesters to convert the methane formed during the digestion process of food and biosolid waste (poop, basically) into renewable energy…. – CLICK HERE to Continue Reading and Comment

Source: http://www.TriplePundit.com: Waste Expo Part I: Food Fight Over Food Waste