Food Scraps Used to Generate Electricity

by Susan Davis on 25/08/09 at 8:45 am

Via Trash

San Francisco Bay restaurateurs and supermarket managers are doing their part to reduce landfill waste and greenhouse gases, while contributing to a major renewable energy project.  Leftover food scraps from more than 2,300 establishments are helping fuel a new program that will generate power from the methane gas produced as the waste materials decompose.

Participating groceries and eateries, ranging from mom-and-pop bodegas to trendy, gourmet restaurants, are eagerly buying into the new program, which is managed by the East Bay Municipal Utility District.  Believed to be the first project of its kind in the nation, the utility district is processing approximately 100 tons of food each week.  The waste materials are turned into methane gas, which then helps generate electricity.  The utility now powers its wastewater treatment facility entirely through energy produced by food scraps.

Although deemed a success, the biggest problem facing the utility is the amount of non-food items that are mixed in with the scraps that won’t decompose. “We get oyster shells, silverware and for some reason, rocks,” said David Williams, director of wastewater for the East Bay Municipal Utility District, during an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Williams hopes eventually to expand the program to food waste collected from homes.