The New Deal: Securing Food Waste for Digestion and Energy Generation via a Partnership Between a Public Treatment Works and a Private Solid Waste Hauler

摘要

Since 2004, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), a publicly owned treatment works in the San Francisco Bay Area, has collaborated with a local solid waste hauler to digest food waste on a small scale for generation of green renewable energy from biogas. After deciding to increase the scale of the project, over the period of a year, the parties worked to develop a partnership for delivery and digestion of 120 tons per day of commercial food waste material. In development of the partnership, the parties had to identify project risks, present possible alternative approaches to address the risks, and come to agreement in order to move forward. This partnership is the first of its kind in North America.