Courtesy : www.usatoday.com
Composting in u.s.a
Small-scale efforts to recycle food waste have been going on for years. Many homeowners collect kitchen scraps for backyard compost piles, and some large institutions such as hospitals and universities have their own composting systems.
But until recently, some states like Minnesota had few sites where garbage haulers, businesses and residences could take organic waste.
“It’s just expanding. It’s an evolving opportunity,” Phenow said. “And it’s the right thing to do. It’s so much better than landfilling.”
Other communities already have successful systems for recycling food waste. Some even legally require food scraps to be set aside for composting.
A 1989 California law required local jurisdictions to meet waste diversion goals spurred additional investment in composting, said Mark Oldfield, spokesman for the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle.
“Because organic matter makes up such a significant portion of the waste stream, it’s really in many respects low-hanging fruit,” Oldfield said.
More compost sites will be needed as California works toward a goal of reducing, recycling or composting 75% of waste by 2020, Oldfield said.
The latest technology in composting involves anaerobic digesters that speed up the process and also produce electricity. Because they are enclosed, digesters don’t create the same odor as open-air compost sites, so they are less likely to face opposition.
“It holds great promise for multiplying the amount of green waste that we can keep out of the landfills,” said Jeff Danzinger, a spokesman with CalRecycle.
In November, a company called Zero Waste Energy opened the world’s largest anaerobic digestion facility for organic waste in San Jose, Calif. The facility will produce 1.6 megawatts of electricity and an estimated 34,000 tons of compost each year, spokeswoman Ashley Beleny said.
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The company also recently broke ground on an anaerobic digestion facility in South San Francisco that will convert organic waste into compressed natural gas fuel and compost.
In Ohio, the number of licensed facilities that accept food scraps from commercial sources for composting grew from three in 2007 to 19, said Linda Fee Oros, Ohio EPA spokeswoman. Some have had to turn food scraps away because they reached capacity.
One of the biggest challenges is getting the waste to the composting sites. Some communities offer curbside pickup of food scraps, which homeowners can put in a separate bin or biodegradable bag.
The city of Portland, Ore., started collecting food scraps mixed with yard waste from single-family residences once a week starting in October 2011. At the same time, the city reduced its garbage collection to once a week.
Although people who didn’t like the change initially grumbled, the transition has been successful, said Michael Armstrong, the city’s sustainability manager. In the first year, the amount of garbage dropped by 37%, while the recycling rate went from 50% to 70%.
“People are very interested. They want to do the right thing,” Armstrong said. “Any time you change the system, it’s disruptive, and so people have to learn what goes in and what stays out.”
