[GreenYes] Re: Growing Global Interest in Food Waste Disposers

["Mary Lou Van Deventer" <marylouvan@no.address>]

The Wall Street Journal can say what it likes, but sending food to the sewage treatment is exactly the opposite of what water managers in Northern California are asking for.  Putting food bits into the sewage pipes requires using a lot of water to carry the weight.  Then the overburdened treatment plant has to use fuel to dry the sludge before it can be composted either anaerobically for methane or aerobically.  

In our age of increasingly precious water, this is unsupportable technology.  Mixing food into yard debris, then composting is much more efficient.  

Mary Lou Van Deventer 

Urban Ore 

900 Murray St. 

Berkeley, CA 94710 

On Feb 28, 2008, at 11:54 AM, Kendall Christiansen wrote:

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal featured a report about the growing international interest ? with a focus on the EU ? in the efficacy of food waste disposers (aka garbage disposals) as an environmental management tool, for immediate diversion of food scraps from the solid waste stream, and relying on wastewater treatment plants to process the solids in fertilizer products with energy recovery where possible.  In particular, it noted the experience of several cities that have intentionally opted for disposer-based systems for food scrap management.

 

Given that the WSJ remains subscription-based, if you?d like a copy of the article ? as well as its Environmental Capital blog post on the same topic ? please let me know and I?ll forward.  If you would like access to one or more of the reports referenced in the article, let me know that, too.

 

Kendall Christiansen

Gaia Strategies

151 Maple Street

Brooklyn, NY 11225

o: 718.941.9535; cell: 917.359.0725

the writer is senior consultant on environmental affairs for InSinkErator, the leading manufacturer of residential and commercial food waste disposers, and former Chair of NYC?s Citywide Recycling Advisory Board