FOOD SCRAP RECYCLING: OPPORTUNITIES AND REALITIES

摘要

When food waste decomposes, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas with at least 25 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide. Municipalities and organizations are beginning to prioritize diverting food waste from landfills by preventing waste, rerouting edible food to food-insecure households, or recycling waste through composting, animal feeding operations, or anaerobic digestion (AD), a process in which microorganisms break down organic material and create biogas and digestate. On April 8, 2021, the Environmental Law Institute, BioCycle, and the American Biogas Council hosted a panel of experts that explored the opportunities and challenges of developing AD projects to divert food waste and recycle it to create valuable products. Below, we present a transcript of that discussion, which has been edited for style, clarity, and space considerations.