Re: [GreenYes] Regarding food waste in the sewer versus the garbage can:

[melissa terry <melissaterry@yahoo.com>]

seems like there's a million dollar entrepreneur
opportunity for someone to design and engineer a
kitchen disposal that can leave the chopped up food in
a bucket under your sink and take away the water...i'd
buy one!

:}
melissa 


--- Jay Donnaway <jdonnawa@dca.state.ga.us> wrote:
> I don't have any ready documentation to quote, but
> it would seem to me that
> running food waste through the sanitary sewer may be
> best.  If the
> wastewater treatment plant uses anaerobic digestion,
> it is much more
> efficient a digester than an MSW landfill, and a
> much higher percentage of
> the methane will be recovered for beneficial use. 
> If treated in an
> aerobic-only wastewater plant, the resulting CO2
> release will still have
> less of a greenhouse impact than vented methane from
> a landfill, as even
> landfills with advanced gas collection systems do
> let some methane escape.
> Also, I understand that due to stormwater and
> groundwater infiltration, many
> wastewater plant inflows are too dilute, and cannot
> sustain a sufficient
> microbe density to adequately treat the waste during
> normal detention times
> without being "sweetened" by food waste, septage
> pumpout, etc..  
> 	It could also be argued that transporting the food
> waste via
> pipeline has less of an impact than in a sanitation
> truck, and could have
> fringe benefits such as a reduction in vectors and
> odor, a decrease in the
> required frequency of waste collection, and reduced
> leachate quantities.  Of
> course, this is based upon the condition that
> increased water use by food
> disposal units and the increase in biochemical
> oxygen demand can be handled
> by the existing water treatment infrastructure. 
> Especially in a commercial
> kitchen, disposal units would seem an excellent
> application for greywater,
> such as the hot water exiting dishwashers and food
> prep sinks.
> Jay Donnaway
> State Recycling Coordinator
> Georgia Department of Community Affairs
> 60 Executive Park South, NE
> Atlanta, GA 30329-2231
> TEL: 404-679-3161
> FAX:  404-679-0646
> Email: jdonnawa@dca.state.ga.us
> 
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