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posted by n1 on Saturday June 17 2017, @04:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the waste-more,-save-the-planet dept.

State and local officials broke ground for Utah's first food digester Thursday morning in a project aimed at reducing landfill waste and harnessing unused renewable energy.

The North Salt Lake facility, to be opened in late 2018, will deploy anaerobic digesters to grind and liquify food waste, then use water, heat and bacteria to convert it into methane gas to be used as natural gas and bio-solids to be converted into fertilizer.

The project, called Wasatch Resource Recovery, is a cooperative partnership between Salt Lake City-based ALPRO Energy & Water and the South Davis Sewer District and will enlist Utah businesses statewide to send their food waste to the facility.

Officials hope the digesters will save landfill space, reduce greenhouse emissions from buried organic garbage and give businesses an affordable alternative for disposing of their food waste.

"We wouldn't take a barrel of oil and bury it and we are essentially doing the same thing with our food waste," said Morgan Bowerman, recovery resource and sustainability manager for the site. "When we are wasting that, we are wasting massive amounts of a resource we can use. Food waste will always be a byproduct, why not use it?"

The United States wastes 65 million tons of food every year. Processing it through methane digester facilities like this could generate significant energy and not preclude the effluent from being used as fertilizer afterward.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2017, @05:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2017, @05:09AM (#526828)

    Hungry people starve to DEATH. Murka #1 forever.