Kent County’s Department of Public Works released its Status of Organic Waste Management in Western Michigan report as it remains steadfast in its goal to reduce landfill food waste by 90% before 2030.
The report revealed an increase in public interest in turning food waste into compost. According to Kent County DPW’s West Michigan Recycling and Landfill Diversion Survey in August 2020, 52% of its 164 respondents wanted to recycle food and other organic waste, but could not find a commercial service provider.
“At both the national and state levels, healthy living trends are driving adherents to consider what kind of food they consume and what happens to the food waste,” the report stated. “Officials from some of the largest metropolitan centers in the West Michigan region have received increasing interest from their residential and small business customers to expand the ability of their local waste systems to include a composting option. The city of Grand Rapids and the city of Holland are both revamping the delivery of their recycling services to include composite collection and processing. Currently, the composting trend is being led by urban residents where space is more limited for personal composting. However, the trend and the demand for commercial composting will likely continue into the outlying suburbs and eventually rural residential areas.”
There are small composting operations in the region, but most are designed for yard waste.
According to the report, one-third of food waste accepted at Kent County’s South Kent Landfill and Waste-to-Energy Facility are organic materials. In 2017, it was estimated as much as 230,000 tons of mixed organics were disposed of annually.
If that amount was turned into compost, officials estimate the value would be as high as $9 million. With just several small composting operations in the region, however, West Michigan does not have a compost processing system that can “extract” the market value of mixed organics.
Mixed organic waste include “yard waste; wood; food waste; paper products; manure or animal bedding; anaerobic digester digestate that does not contain free liquids; compostable products; dead animals unless infectious or managed under other state laws; spent grain from breweries; paunch; food processing residuals; aquatic plants; any other material, including, but not limited to, fat, oil or grease,” according to the report.
West Michigan disposes of an estimated 132,000 tons of food waste through the municipal waste stream each year. It is the largest source of material disposed of in the landfill and the waste-to-energy facility. Thirty percent of the global food loss occurs at the agricultural production and harvest stage, 6% at post-harvest, 3% at processing and packaging, 18% at retail and distribution; and 42% at consumption, according to the report. Nationally, the USDA estimates that as much as 40% of purchased food is wasted.
Wasted food is caused by a variety of reasons.
“Households toss limp vegetables, as many people are confused by food date labels and unnecessarily discard uneaten food,” per the report. “Restaurants and home cooks often prepare and serve large portions and discard leftovers. Grocery stores overstock their shelves to maintain an image of abundance. Farmers are unable to sell produce that doesn’t look perfect or dump it due to economic variables.”
To limit the food waste that ends up in landfills, and to reach the county’s goal of reducing food waste by 90%, the report provided insight into available technology that can turn mixed organic waste to compost through “composting,” which is “a managed process which utilizes microorganisms that feed on organic material and consume oxygen,” according to the report. “The process generates heat, drives off moisture and reduces bulky organic waste in just a few months into beneficial soil-like material containing nutrients, humus and microorganisms.”
Most cities in West Michigan have passed local ordinances to prohibit residential composting because of public health concerns.
The technologic suggestions by the report are as follows:
- Vermicomposting: The product of earthworm digestion and aerobic decomposition using the activities of macro- and microorganisms at room temperature. Vermicomposting, or worm composting, produces a rich organic soil amendment containing a diversity of plant nutrients and beneficial microorganisms.
- Anaerobic digestion: An enclosed engineered digester system that goes through a series of biological processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.
- Rapid thermophilic digestion: An aerobic digestion system where microorganisms inside the waste break down with the presence of oxygen from the atmosphere. The system consists of two key components: proprietary enzymes and a digestor. The system creates an accelerated degradation process to break down complex organic compounds into simpler organic matter.
- Construction and demolition waste recovery (C&D): Recovering, sorting, processing and aggregating materials used in building or demolishing roads, bridges, housing, etc. C&D debris includes steel, wood products, drywall and plaster, brick and clay tile, asphalt shingles, concrete and asphalt concrete. C&D is not included in municipal solid waste.
- Biochar: Involves heating biomass (thermal decomposition), usually from pyrolysis or gasification, with little or no oxygen in order to drive off volatile gasses, leaving carbon behind. Biomass waste materials appropriate for biochar production include field crop and processing residues such as nut shells, fruit pits, bagasse, etc. It also includes wood from construction/demolition, yard, food and forestry wastes and animal manures. Fertilized (charged) biochar can be mixed with compost to add a slow release of nutrients and to increase water-holding capacity for soils.
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October 30, 2021 at 03:00AM
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