Hello BESTers,

Recently an article was posted at Yale Environment 360, which provides 
a fairly comprehensive look at the state-of-the-industry of food waste 
digestion.  The article primarily focuses on the co-digestion of sewage 
and food waste.  This method of digesting food waste may be one of the 
easiest to transition to because there are already many wastewater 
treatment plants currently digesting their sewage sludge. According to 
the article, 1241 wastewaster treatment plants currently have digesters. 
Communities and cities can simply feed their food waste into the 
existing digesters to generate additional biogas.  As cities across the 
US and Europe push for sustainable food waste disposal, this can be an 
appealing option.  However, as mentioned at the end of the article, one 
potential drawback to this method is the worry about soil contamination 
from land application of sewage sludge.  By co-digesting sewage and food 
waste, the "clean" food waste is then contaminated, reducing its 
potential as a high-grade fertilizer or soil amendment, compared to 
digesting or composting food waste on its own.  That isn't to say that 
sending food waste to these wastewater digesters isn't a great step 
forward.  It effectively diverts food waste from landfills (and all the 
associated problems with this) and generates a carbon-neutral, renewable 
bioenergy.

Have a great weekend,
Ryan

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/on_front_lines_of_recycling_turning_food_waste_into_biogas/2779/

On Front Lines of Recycling, Turning Food Waste into Biogas
Yale Environmental 360
Rachel Cernansky
June 26, 2014