[GreenYes] Re: food waste in the sewer

[Anne Morse <AMorse@co.winona.mn.us>]

Additionally, some municipal treatment facilities have difficulty handling
high levels of organic matter.  For example, our sewage treatment plant
consistently bumps up against its permitted BOD limits, meaning there is too
much organic material sent into the Mississippi after treatment, which in
turn reduces the available oxygen in the river.  As a result, twelve years
ago Winona required that all institutions and restaurants STOP using the
sanitary sewer for disposal of food waste.

Anne Morse
Winona, MN



-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Fredericks [mailto:pjf@nwark.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 8:14 AM
To: melissa terry
Cc: Jay Donnaway; 'Blair Pollock'; 'greenyes@grrn.org'
Subject: Re: [GreenYes] Regarding food waste in the sewer versus the
garbage can:


Regarding the original post, if composting is not available, is it better to
send food waste to a landfill or a sewage disposal plant: the answer is
NEITHER! I would have thought someone on this list would have stated the
obvious. Food waste contains not only vegetable and animal parts, but is
often high in fats oils and greases, which create difficulties even for a
sewage treatment facility let alone home composters. If  commercial, large
scale composting is not available-------- make it available! The composting
of food waste in a large scale system makes it convenient for everyone and
is a great adjunct to a municipality's green waste and sludge disposal.
Phil Fredericks
http://www.ecticompost.com

melissa terry wrote:

> 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
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