From Green Right Now Reports
Waste Management of Orange County today opened a new Food and Organic Recycling Facility, featuring processing technology that the company said is the first of its kind in Southern California.
Located at Waste Management’s Transfer and Processing Center in Orange, the Food and Organic Recycling facility processes food and organics collected from local businesses, and converts it into a material that can be used as a source of energy. Local companies that will be sending organic waste to the facility include Fashion Island, Olive Garden, Montage Laguna Beach, Irvine Company, Hyatt Irvine and Lucille’s BBQ Grill in Lake Forest.
The opening ceremony was attended by the director of California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery Margo Reid Brown, City of Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche, Mission Viejo Mayor Pro Tem Dave Leckness and City of Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido.
“With our new technology, we will be able to recycle more food and organics than ever before and offer the region a viable green solution for transforming previously unused food waste and other organics into sustainable products,” Jason Rose, market area vice president for Waste Management of Orange County, said in a statement. “This investment in green infrastructure allows us to take materials that were previously sent to the landfill and provide a solution that ensures beneficial reuse.”
Under the company’s program, separated food and organics are collected at participating businesses. Waste Management then picks up and transports the food and organics to the recycling facility where it is processed in a specially designed bio-separator. With this process, the company says, all contaminates are removed from organic waste, which is then transformed into an organic slurry that can be mixed with other complementary liquids to maximize its use in creating green energy.
Waste Management and other companies have had the capability to compost or convert food waste into a soil amendment through dehydration, but this is the first technology in the region that creates an end product that can be used for a number of sustainable applications, including the creation of green energy.
CalRecycle estimates that food waste accounts for nearly 16 percent of the overall waste stream in California, over 6 million tons per year.
“Most organic material – like much of the food waste discarded by restaurants and hotels – can be recycled or composted and put to more valuable end uses,” CalRecycle’s Brown said in a statement. “By processing food and organics using the latest available technology, Waste Management is taking an important step to protect our environment while helping local municipalities meet diversion goals.”