A San Francisco, California–based firm that operates an anaerobic digester in Auburn will use a federal grant to expand the digester’s capacity.
It’s part of a project to help reduce food loss and waste and to divert food waste from landfills.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) region 2 has awarded Salina–based TDO (Train Develop Optimize) more than $235,000 to help Generate Capital’s Auburn facility “once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied,” per a news release.
Besides the Auburn digester, Generate Capital also operates seven other similar digesters in other areas of the country.
TDO was previously known as the Central New York Technology Development Organization, per its website.
The EPA grant will help pay for an overall $653,000 project in anticipation of the Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law that will be in effect starting 2022, TDO tells CNYBJ in an email.
TDO/Generate Capital are among 12 organizations to which the EPA awarded a total of $3 million to support anaerobic-digestion projects.
Generate Capital will use the funding to upgrade an existing facility by purchasing a baler to increase the volume and diversity of the processed feedstock, including packaged food waste and food waste with more contaminants.
This investment will improve the capacity of the anaerobic digester and enable it to take in feedstocks that have high percentages of packaging. The facility can then ship out bales of aggregated packaging rather than filling dumpsters with loose packaging, ultimately decreasing the costs associated with disposing of packaging and increasing processing speed.
“TDO is off-the-charts excited to be able to bring this project to Cayuga County,” Jim D’Agostino, TDO director, said. “Our gratitude goes out to the EPA for investing and supporting the growth of anaerobic digesters, to our top-notch partner Generate Capital who will be making considerable investment to the facility, and finally to the honorable Keith Batman [majority leader of the Cayuga County Legislature] for his support on our application. We are chomping at the bit to get started.”
Anaerobic digestion
This anaerobic-digestion funding is a part of EPA’s efforts and contributions to the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative. It’s a partnership involving the EPA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce food loss and waste through individual and combined federal action.
Anaerobic digestion is a process where microorganisms break down organic materials, such as food scraps, manure, and sewage sludge, “all in the absence of oxygen.” Anaerobic digestion produces biogas, which can be captured and used for energy production, and digestate, a “nutrient-rich” product, such as a fertilizer, per the EPA.
Anaerobic digestion is a strategy included in EPA’s food-recovery hierarchy that is “preferable to landfilling/incineration because it reclaims valuable resources.” Keeping food waste from landfills, such as transforming it into fuel or fertilizer, can save money and reduce environmental impacts, the agency noted.
Beginning in January 2022, state law says large food generators — supermarkets, colleges, hotels, and sporting venues — will be required to donate leftover edible food. The remaining scraps must be prepared as animal feed or recycled if a recycling facility exists within 25 miles of waste generation. At that time, large generators of food waste may no longer landfill these materials.
When the mandate takes effect, more feedstock, both packaged and scraps, will be available for anaerobic-digestor operations, the EPA said.