Abolishing Food From Landfills: Could it Work in North America?

Wayne Davis, Harvest Power
August 20, 2012 | 4 Comments

Achieving zero waste is a goal for many municipalities and organizations today, and a huge piece of that equation is food scraps, which typically make up 25 to 45 percent of residential waste in western countries. But is it really possible to eliminate all food waste from landfills? UK-based think tank CentreForum thinks so, and wants the UK government to lay down the law – literally – to make it happen.

The organization made headlines in July when it issued a report recommending that the UK ban all food scraps from landfills by 2020. CentreForum’s plan may be aggressive, but it also makes a lot of sense, especially when cost-effectiveness, renewable energy targets and other benefits are taken into account. The key is anaerobic digestion (AD): a technology that processes organic materials such as food scraps to create renewable energy and natural fertilizers.

AD, CentreForum argues, could produce more than 11 terawatts (TWh) of energy for the UK within the next decade, whereas the country produces 1.3 TWh of energy from AD today. The think tank recommends several legislative steps that would help break through barriers such as limited access to organic feedstocks and the high costs of connecting to the energy grid. Chief among these recommendations is the proposal that made headlines when the report came out: A government-imposed ban on all food waste entering landfills.

Strong voices like CentreForum’s are all well and good in the UK, but what about North America? In the United States, landfilling is still seen as a more viable option than in the UK, which diverts more than half of its waste (compared to 30% in the US). While the UK lags behind leading countries like Germany in AD advancement, they’re ahead of the US in adopting this critical technology. The US produced 541 million kWh of energy from farm-based anaerobic digesters in 2011 according to the EPA, while the American Biogas Council estimates that the potential for AD from farms is 8.8 Billion kWh.

North America can catch up: evidence suggests that North America is beginning to change its perceptions of organic materials. In the Fall of 2011, Portland, Oregon became the first American city to ban weekly trash pickups, shifting to weekly collection of “green” waste – organic materials including food scraps and yard trimmings – and bi-weekly collection of garbage. In the first quarter of 2012, Portland’s landfill waste decreased 44% due to the new policy. In addition, biogas, a flexible, methane-based fuel created through AD, is increasingly popular in North America according to a recent study by Pike Research, which also estimated that the global market for biogas would double in size to $33 billion within the next decade.

Harvest Power is building two of the largest AD facilities in North America, both of which are set to open later this year. These “Energy Gardens” will use organic waste streams to produce renewable energy in the form of biogas and natural, nutrient-rich fertilizers and soils. The company’s Energy Garden in Richmond, British Columbia (near Vancouver) recently received an Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition Award from KPMG Global. If AD facilities like these processed only half of the food waste created by the US in a single year, the EPA estimates they would produce enough clean energy to power 2.5 million homes.

We may not be ready to completely ban organic materials from landfills (in North America or the UK), but CentreForum’s report signals activists everywhere to take AD seriously. The faster we embrace the value of organic materials and the opportunity of AD, the better our future looks, both economically and environmentally.

Lead image: Organic waste via Shutterstock

4 Comments

Thomas M
August 28, 2012

every person in all neighborhoods should learn to compost their waste food products. Other recycling programs are in effect and people have learned not to put their plastics and metals into their trash. It shouldn't take much education to teach them how to recycle their orgainic waste as well.
One first step is to get rid of, and make illegal,food waste grinders that clog up our sewer lines and increase waste water treatment.

Lawrence Carroll
August 22, 2012

Great article, Mr. Wayne Davis! Thank you . . .

davidcarl, that does indeed sound a bit like "truck drive-through overkill" for real! While I love what the Belgians are doing - it does seem like they could do it in a little less of a "digitized" manner (that is, with a more intergrated methodology!).

One question, do those trucks run on AD produced methane?

David Carl
August 21, 2012

This example is fro Belgium, not the UK, but I am using it to illustrate how green efforts can add to the problem. Garbage is divided into four categories, landfill garbage, paper waste, glass and metals, and yard waste. Each category has its own colored coded bag. The night before garbage is to be collected each household places their bags by the street. At about 5:00 am a truck comes through the neighborhood to place all the bags on the same side of the street. A few hours later the truck comes through and collects the household garbage. It is followed by the paper, glass, and metal truck. It is followed by the yard waste truck. Then comes the truck to collect oversized items. Finally comes the truck to clean the trash from the streets because dogs and wild animals have strewn trash across the road in their effort to make a meal out of the household trash.

In the name of being green, six trucks drive through the city collecting trash when it could have been collected by one and sorted at a central facility. Will adding a food bag to the mix provide a net benefit?

ANONYMOUS
August 21, 2012

I WILL BE GLAD TO COMMENT ON THIS HERE IN LOUISIANA WE ARE FINISHING UP ON OUR WASTE CONVERSION REFINERY PROJECT AND HAVE AT LEAST TWO MORE PLANED THE BEST PART NONE OF THE PROJECT INVOLVE THE SUN COLLECTORS AS A MAIN SOURCE DUE TO SUN SPOTS AND EXTRA CHEMICALS INVOLVED AND WE HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH HOT AIR TO GO AROUND

I CAN NOT WAIT TILL WE START USING THE DEEP OCEAN CURRENTS TO PRODUCE HYDRO POWER CALLED HYDRO KINETICS AND WAIT UNTIL I TELL YOU WHERE KRILL COMES FROM

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Wayne Davis

Wayne Davis is the Vice President of Incentives and Governmental Affairs for Harvest Power. Harvest harnesses the maximum value from organic materials through the production of renewable energy and soils, mulches and natural fertilizers....