Food Waste Recycling

What is food waste?

In general, food waste is the food intended for consumption that is discarded along the food supply chain and cannot be used. The particular causes of food waste are numerous and occur at the stages of producing, processing, retailing, and consuming.

Table of content:

• • What is Food Waste?
  • Reduce Food Waste
  • How to Reduce Food Waste
  • Food Waste Recycling
  • Food Waste Management
  • Solutions

Reduce food waste

With growing urbanization around the world, changes in consumption patterns and food distribution systems present growing challenges for management of food waste.

Currently, one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. This amount of food waste that is produced globally every year is more than enough to feed the nearly 1 billion hungry people in the world.

How to reduce food waste

• We should eat all shapes and sizes,
• Companies can use 'ugly' fruit and vegetables in their products
• We should use food waste to make other resources: An increasing amount of food waste is composted – so it’s put back into the soil, or is broken down and converted into gases, creating a source of renewable energy in anaerobic digestion facilities.

Food waste recycling

Different food waste recycling technologies are presently emerging or establishing themselves economically and environmentally as possible alternatives to the practice of landfilling food waste.

These food waste recycling technologies serve to the complete spectrum of food waste management opportunities, from small commercial businesses, up to large organizations.

The food process technologies can be broken down into the three main categories of biological digestion, non-biological volume/weight reduction, and thermal processing.

Anaerobic Digestion - Anaerobic digestion is the process by which organic matter such as animal or food waste is broken down to produce biogas and biofertiliser. This process happens in the absence of oxygen in a sealed, oxygen-free tank called ananaerobic digester.

Thermal Hydrolysis - A two-stage process involving high-pressure boiling of waste followed by rapid decompression. The waste sludge is then digested anaerobically by bacteria, producing high yields of biogas

Aerobic Digestion - Food waste is broken down aerobically (in the presence of oxygen) by natural organic bacteria.

Size reduction / volume reduction (Mechanical Processing) - Mechanical blades grind or shred the waste in the presence of water to create a pulp, which is then pressed to remove the majority of the water content.

Thermal processing

• Waste to energy incineration - Combustion of MSW and capture of residual heat to generate electricity and heat.
• Pyrolysis - Pyrolysis is the thermo-chemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen.
• Gasification - The conversion of carbon-based materials (organic wastes and fossil fuel derived products) into CO, H2, and CO2.

Food waste management

Food waste management are the activities and actions that are required to manage food waste.

This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of food waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the food waste management process.

Collection of food waste - Collection systems that ensure clean food waste is brought to treatment.

Treatment of food waste - Food waste treatment alternatives, from windrow composting to anaerobic digestion.

Food waste disposal - Food waste can be composted to produce soil and fertilizer, fed to animals, or used to produce energy or fuel.

Food waste solutions

Wasting food is not only an economical issue, but it also depletes natural resources and has a strong impact on the environment. With a little effort, everyone can play a role in reducing food waste.