A third of the food raised or prepared does not make it from farm or factory to fork. Producing uneaten food squanders a whole host of resources—seeds, water, energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, and financial capital—generating greenhouse gases at every stage, including methane when organic matter lands in the global rubbish bin. The food we waste is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global emissions. Greg McCarron discusses how composting and anaerobic digestion turn organic waste into a beneficial product in Waste Management & Research, Volume 43, Issue 4.
The trend in the United States is towards using ASP systems to process food scrap materials. Recent examples by private companies involve the composting of food processing residuals. One company implemented a turned windrow compost project for sustainability reasons and to produce organic fertilizer to grow organic food products, which continue to grow in demand. Another company is pursuing an ASP compost project as land application regulations are changing, which are affecting America’s farms and farmers, and requiring enhanced organic management practices.
Anaerobic Digestion (AD) involves decomposing organic waste in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere, producing methane-rich biogas. Historically, AD has been used to process low solids/wet organic materials, such as manure, biosolids, and liquid industrial waste. To manage food waste, three types of AD facilities are increasingly being utilized in the United States: (1) stand-alone food waste digesters, (2) on-farm digesters that co-digest food waste and manure, and (3) digesters at water resource recovery facilities that co-digest food waste and biosolids.
About the Author: As a Vice President, Greg McCarron oversees SCS Engineers’ nationwide organics management initiative, which includes edible food rescue, composting, and anaerobic digestion. Greg is SCS’s National Expert on Organics and works closely with national, regional, and local clients. His experience includes the design, planning, permitting, regulatory support, construction oversight, system start-up, economic analysis, and technology assessment projects for municipal and private clients. His turn-key projects typically involve feasibility studies, due diligence evaluations, facility siting, site investigations, environmental studies, permitting, design, and construction and operation services. Facilities include compost facilities, landfills, landfill gas control facilities, and support facilities (e.g., roadways, stormwater, utilities). Other projects include waste composition studies, compliance reports, and preparing various procurement documents. Reach out to Greg at or on LinkedIn.
Additional Composting Resources:
The recent MWEA Conference covered a wealth of other important topics on water management and safety, including this presentation with SCS Engineer’s Remote Monitoring Control specialist, Brett Heist. Brett and Jarod Stuyvesant co-presented “More Than a Pretty Map – GIS Covers Your Assets,” including demonstrations of how the City of Zeeland is using GIS to enhance the efficiency of maintenance and inspection activities and improve the reliability of physical infrastructure throughout its community, leading to increased public safety and financial savings.
Click here to view these demos!
DEMOS: There are some unique methods to plan for capital improvements and streamline data storage and access being implemented in the City of Zeeland. The City has an integrated GIS map for its storm, sanitary, water, and streets, including information about each asset within the system: material, size, inverts, condition, business risk, and even televised inspection videos for some of the storm and sanitary lines.
The GIS maps’s information is used daily by public works and to create a comprehensive capital improvement map that the City uses to plan for 5-year improvements, significantly improving planning and budgeting efficiency while ultimately providing the public with safer infrastructure.
Features include televised inspection videos attached to a respective asset after uploading and accessible with the click of a mouse. Access entire buildings in the same manner as horizontal assets using a 3D online viewer.
The Zeeland Clean Water Plant RAS Building: Using AutoCAD data, the City created a 3D GIS viewer of this building and its assets. Asset information, such as blower and pump sizes and operation and maintenance tasks, are accessible without having to sort through shop drawings and as-builts.
Another example of implementing 3D GIS data like this is for MobileGR who uses a 3D GIS model to store asset data and maintenance tasks for every one of their nine parking ramps in downtown Grand Rapids.
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