Wastecon 2016: Putting in the effort

The Silver Spring, Maryland-based Solid Waste Association of North America hosted its annual Wastecon, Aug. 22-25, 2016, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Food waste and organics diversion was a major area of discussion during the event and organizers put food waste diversion into action as part of the event.

Tuesday, Aug. 23, a Mega Session titled Focus on Food Waste in Organics featured Nora Goldstein, editor of BioCycle magazine. She discussed the history of organics diversion and the magazine founded by her father Jerome Goldstein in 1960 as Compost Science.

She said, in the old days, food waste fed was fed to swine and today animal feed has come back to part of the hierarchy for how to handle food waste.

“What really propelled the growth of composting in late 80s and early 90s was landfill yard trimming bans,” said Goldstein. She said the bans catapulted the infrastructure for the composting industry.

She also referenced a 1991 grocery industry study that stated recycling and composting of food scraps would allow grocery stores to recycle 90 percent of their waste. It would also create a savings of downsizing trash and reducing pickup frequency.

San Francisco was one of the first municipalities to begin three stream sorting in the mid-1990s and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced its initial Food Waste Hierarchy in 1998, Goldstein said. EPA updated it a few years ago, noting that food waste breaks down so quickly, there is not enough time to put in in a cell and cover it in a landfill without methane escaping, so the EPA wanted people to try to avoid putting food into a landfill.

A 2012 Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) study also gained a lot of media attention. It revealed up to 40 percent of food was wasted.

Now, she said, wasted food is in the media and public policy spotlight. She said proven and scalable solutions for food waste management are available, many of which are pretty high up on the learning curve.

ReFED is a recent movement she discussed that assesses the economic value of food waste. Goldstein provided several examples of anaerobic digestion and composting projects taking place across the United States. While anaerobic digestion has a high diversion potential, its economic value is the lowest, she noted.

The best option for food waste was also revisited on Wednesday, Aug. 24 when several different perspectives were debated on the topic. The Great Food Waste Debate brought together four speakers who had a chance to share their opinion on the best way to divert food waste. Craig Bartlett, Regional Municipality of Durham, represented anaerobic digestion on the panel, while Kevin Roche, ceo, Ecomaine, had more of a waste-to-energy perspective. Patrick Sullivan, senior vice president, SCS Engineers, discussed the merits of landfilling food waste and capturing the energy from it that way. Risa Weignberger, president, Risa Weingberger & Associates, held that composting was the best option. The audience also was allowed to cast a vote on a mobile app on which option they thought was the best.

Related to the issue of food waste and diversion, SWANA partnered with Second Helpings, an Indianapolis-based organization that reclaims food after banquets and distributes it to local homeless shelters and missions. Each year, Second Helpings “rescues” roughly 2.3 million pound of food and prepares about 4,000 meals per day. By doing this, Second Helpings is both reducing food waste and feeding their community.

For food waste that cannot be consumed during one major conference event, the Wastecon recycling committee pledged to send all remaining food scraps to GreenCycle, an Indianapolis-based organization that uses food waste to produce organic mulches, composts and soil blends.

“SWANA is thrilled to partner with Second Helpings and GreenCycle to provide food to the needy in Indianapolis and divert food waste to other useful products. As industry leaders, it is important for us to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk, when it comes to waste diversion and recycling,” said David Biderman, Solid Waste Association of North America's (SWANA’s) executive director and CEO.

"We are glad to have the opportunity to provide robust recycling as well as a food compost pilot project during Wastecon. Regarding the latter, Indianapolis is primed to grow its infrastructure for food waste composting at major venues that strive for zero waste programs," stated Carey Hamilton, executive director of the Indiana Recycling Coalition and co-chair of the Wastecon Recycling Committee. "This pilot will help demonstrate the viability of zero waste venues in our community," continued Hamilton.

In addition to food waste, SWANA is working with the Indiana Convention Center to ensure that all aluminum cans, plastic bottles, glass, cardboard, pallets, paper, and cooking oil are recycled. The Convention Center also uses a line of biodegradable, disposable service ware products, so no paper products will go to waste. The Wastecon recycling committee also secured recycling containers from Clear Stream Recycling, Palos Heights, Illinois, for attendees to use during the event.

Wastecon 2016, an annual conference hosted by the Solid Waste Association of North America was Aug. 22-25 in Indianapolis.