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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday June 17 2017, @06:20AM (9 children)
I doubt it. Don't tell me the supermarkets don't have standards for size/shape of the produce they are buying for the farmers/agribusinesses.
When was the last time you saw an odd shape cucumber, an apple with a scar from growing to close to branch or an oversized banana on the shelves?
I can bet at least 40% more food is wasted before it even hits the supermarket shelves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2017, @06:55AM (3 children)
Do you miss the good old days when Grade F food was fed to niggers?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 17 2017, @07:18AM (1 child)
Sod off you fucking niggers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2017, @07:46AM
So. Torn. On. This. Troll.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday June 17 2017, @07:19AM
An odd shaped apple tastes as good and it's as nutritious as the perfectly shaped one.
I know it from a very reliable source, the two apple trees in my backyard; no matter the shape, their apples taste better than the ones in the supermarket; I can afford to let them ripen on the branch, in the autumn sun and wind, instead of storerooms, warehouses and trucks.
Same... nay, even more, goes for the tomatoes in my veggie patch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday June 17 2017, @07:13AM (3 children)
alas, not all tomatoes are square...
http://sqtomato.com/ [sqtomato.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday June 17 2017, @07:22AM (2 children)
The odd-shaped heirloom tomatoes taste better. Last summer was a good season for those on my veggie patch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday June 17 2017, @07:27AM (1 child)
cherry tomatoes were most successful for us.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday June 17 2017, @10:59AM
Same here. Even some with a medium sized fruit, yellow variegated with green, went quite well too.
The larger red ones got some rot onto the fruits, unfortunately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by tibman on Saturday June 17 2017, @05:29PM
Those are probably turned into soups and such.
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