Dehydration technology is turning discarded food and green waste into nutritious farm fertiliser.
Food waste has a new destination. Instead of being dumped in landfill, it is being transformed into a nutrient-rich organic fertiliser that can improve soil quality.
Retailers, food manufacturers and residential apartment blocks are among those embracing the new technology, which processes collected food waste onsite – and is also faster than traditional composting.
A self-serve SoilFood and Waste Dehydration System developed by Australian business, Eco Guardians, is currently being trialled by the Melbourne City Council. The council has installed the dehydrators within inner-city apartment blocks as part of a 12-month trial to cut the quantity of food waste sent to landfill.
The UN Environment Programme has estimated that a staggering 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by food waste. In addition, landfill levies are rising, driving many to explore financially viable alternatives.
Many organisations are looking for a circular economy solution to food waste, says Eco Guardians chief executive, Helen Steel. “One of the great benefits of our product is that we reduce the food waste onsite at source and we can reuse the output from that.”
Beyond the Melbourne trial, the SoilFood dehydration system is being deployed to other residential blocks where organic waste from residents is shredded, heated, dehydrated and deodorised.
“It makes sense given the number of residents living in high rise apartments where they don’t have FOGO bin collection,” says Steel.
Other companies in Australia and New Zealand using SoilFood systems include the Four Pillars distillery and Woolworths where the dehydrator is processing everything from leftover food to gin botanicals. The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) also runs a unit to process grass clippings and food waste from events into SoilFood which is then used on the nearby Yarra Park gardens.
Read the full article: https://coolgreentech.com/food-waste-to-soil-saviour/
