Two new reports released by the U.S. EPA on Oct 19, in part, highlight the opportunity anaerobic digestion and biogas production offer in mitigating the environmental impacts of food waste and reducing associated methane emissions. &nbsp;According to the EPA, more than one-third of the food waste produced in the U.S. is never eaten, wasting the resources used to produce, transport, process and distribute it. Much of that waste is sent to landfills, where it breaks down and generates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG). The agency further estimates wasted food is the single most common material landfilled and incinerated in the U.S, comprising 24 percent and 22 percent of landfilled and combusted municipal solid waste (MSW) respectively.&nbsp;“Wasted food is a major environmental, social, and economic challenge,” said&nbsp;EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “These reports provide decision-makers with important data on the climate impacts of food waste through landfill methane emissions and highlight the urgent need to keep food out of landfills.”The reports emphasize the importance of both reducing the amount of food that is wasted and managing its disposal in more environmentally friendly ways. Based on the reports’ findings, the EPA has released an update Food Recovery Hierarchy, a tool designed to help decision makers understand the best options for managing food waste in terms of environmental impacts. The new tool—called the Wasted Food Scale—represents the first update since the 1990s. It reflects recent technological advances and changes in operational practices. While preventing food from being wasted in the first place—referred to as source reduction—is still the most environmentally beneficial approach, anaerobic digestion can also play a role in reducing the environmental impacts of wasted food.&nbsp;The first report, titled “From Field to Bin: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste Management Pathways,” examines the environmental impacts of disposing of food waste. The report specifically points out the benefits of recycling wasted food into soil amendments.&nbsp;“The nutrient-rich outputs of composting, anaerobic digestion, and sewer/wastewater treatment (i.e., compost, digestate or biosolids) can help build soil organic matter, which decreases bulk density, increases porosity, water retention, and infiltration, promotes nutrient cycling and retention, and stabilizes soil aggregates, reducing the risk of erosion,” said the EPA in the Field to Bin report. “These improvements are regenerative and can help to improve the resilience of agricultural systems in the face of climate change. Synthetic fertilizers lack the organic matter content of these amendments and cannot provide similar benefits, other than indirectly through promoting crop growth. In addition, the nitrogen in wasted food can be used to provide nutrients to crops over the short or long-term in lieu of synthetic fertilizers. These organic amendments require less energy to produce than synthetic fertilizers and when applied result in less nitrogen loss through volatilization, leaching, or runoff than synthetic fertilizers, reducing acidification, eutrophication, particulate matter emissions, and global warming potential. However, nutrient-rich outputs from anaerobic digestion and sewer/wastewater treatment may be disposed rather than beneficially used.”The second report, titled “Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste,” represents the first time the EPA has published modeled estimates of annual methane emissions released into the atmosphere from landfilled food waste. The agency said more food reaches MSW landfills than any other material, but its contribution to landfill methane emissions has not been previously quantified.&nbsp;Full copies of both reports are available on the EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-releases-new-food-waste-reports">website</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Two new reports released by the U.S. EPA on Oct 19, in part, highlight the opportunity anaerobic digestion and biogas production offer in mitigating the environmental impacts of food waste and reducing associated methane emissions.  

EPA updates recommendations for managing food waste

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