A Second Life For Scraps: Making Biogas From Food Waste

Richard Dahl, a freelance writer in Boston, MA, also writes periodically for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Background image: © Halfdark/Getty Images About This Article open Citation: Dahl R. 2015. A second life for scraps: making biogas from food waste. Environ Health Perspect 123:A180–A183; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.123-A180 News Topics: Conservation, Energy, Laws, Regulations, and Policy, Waste Disposal Published: 1 July 2015 PDF Version (4.6 MB) Biodigesters use organic waste to produce methane, a relatively clean fuel. Since 2013 Kroger grocery stores have sent this facility all the food they can’t sell or donate. © FEED Resource Recovery, Inc In 2010 an estimated 31% of the food in U.S. stores and homes went uneaten, and Americans shipped approximately 34 million tons of food waste to landfills.1 When food decomposes under anaerobic conditions—for instance, buried beneath other waste in a landfill—it produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.1 According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, landfills are the third largest producer of methane in the United States, accounting for about 18% of methane emissions in 2013.2 In recent years U.S. policy makers have begun to take action to reduce the flow of food into landfills, in part to stem greenhouse gas emissions but also to save businesses the cost of disposal. In 2011 Connecticut became the first state to initiate such action, prohibiting the landfilling of food waste by ...
Source: EHP Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Featured News Spheres of Influence and Policy Conservation Energy July 2015 Laws Regulations Waste Disposal Source Type: research