Sustainable Food Waste Evaluation

Nationwide, people generate over 34 million tons of food waste annually, with most all of this organic waste going to landfills. Given the mass of food waste generated, cities and other planners need to understand the relative economic and environmental costs and benefits of different food waste management methods, including the management of food waste through the co-digestion of these organics in anaerobic digesters followed by the co-generation of renewable heat and power by wastewater facilities.

The purpose of this research was to estimate economic and environmental costs and benefits of different food waste management alternatives not tailored to a specific location. Every effort was made to generalize and simplify the assumptions used in this report to serve as a comparative study and provide some general guidance regarding the sustainable food waste management alternatives. Because of its general nature, the content of this report should be seen as a stepping stone or template for site-specific studies.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series.

ISBN: 9781780403854 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780401287 (eBook)