Food Waste Diversion is Key to a Sustainable Community

Article highlights prevalence of food waste in the nation, calling out for more sustainable ways of using food.

Restaurants, cafeterias and food vending venues all over the nation end up with thousands of pounds (if not tons of waste) that go into the trash every day. Would you consider it to be organic waste or organic treasure?

For far too long, communities have limited themselves in their approach to treating unused food, often discarded as simple waste into trash containers, only to end up in landfills. Most of it goes to waste, thereby causing more harm not only to the environment, but also to the bottom line of consumers. Instead, food waste diversion channels can be built and supported that would treat waste as something from which to gain.

Methane gas—one of the byproducts of organic waste—is seen as a harmful substance, but it also serves as fuel for technologies like Combined Heat and Power Systems, which can treat and channel that gas through an engine to create electricity and thermal energy. Furthermore, the anaerobic digestion process also yields valuable soil amendments like compost and fertilizer, depending on the makeup of the waste. Don’t think there’s enough to make a big deal out of it? The fact is that there is a lot of fuel since food waste tipped the scale at 35 million tons in 2012, according to the most recent year estimates available.

The EPA article also features useful steps to follow: “Communities should start by contacting their local landfill to see what options are available for organic waste diversion in their region. Schools, restaurants and businesses should then educate students, employees and consumers about the benefits of composting before implementing a diversion program. If a compost facility is unavailable in a region, communities can still divert organic waste by showing families how to create backyard compost piles and compost their home food and yard scraps.”

Team Gemini can help companies, communities and cities regain control of the way they manage their waste and help them convert this organic treasure into energy and other sustainable benefits. To learn more about Team Gemini’s solutions in waste management and use of waste, check out http://teamgemini.us/resource-recovery/ and http://teamgemini.us/bio-refinery/.

To read the EPA’s full article, visit http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2014/12/food-waste-diversion-is-key-to-a-sustainable-community/.