While food is a valuable resource required to live, it’s also the underlying cause of many environmental issues. Why?
Unfortunately, food waste is a huge problem around the world, with every sector in the supply chain contributing to this growing issue. In fact, with over 800 million people around the world suffering from hunger and undernourishment, less than a quarter of the food lost or wasted in the U.S. and Europe could be enough to feed all of them.
In addition to preventing waste at the source, advanced organic waste management is a critical factor in diverting food from landfills. From composting to waste-to-energy solutions, there are many ways businesses and households can implement organic waste management to increase sustainability efforts.
Keep reading to explore the 5 key strategies for organic waste management, potential challenges your business may face, and emerging trends and innovations.
Key Takeaways
- When left unmanaged, organic waste can negatively impact the environment in multiple ways, such as contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, increased pollution, and the loss of biodiversity.
- Composting is a valuable waste management approach that turns food waste into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. In addition to diverting food waste from landfills, compost improves soil fertility and promotes higher yields in agriculture, making it a highly appealing option for many businesses.
- One of the options available to businesses is implementing their own on-site waste processing system, which is especially beneficial in high-waste-generating industries such as restaurants and farms. This helps them reduce greenhouse gas emissions, achieve sustainability goals, enhance their brand image, and eliminate the need for off-site landfill disposal.
- Future trends in food waste include the adoption of advanced technologies, such as AI-driven systems, to enhance inventory management, optimize the collection and transportation of waste, automate sorting processes, provide real-time data, and more.
What Is Organic Waste?
Organic waste is any material that is biodegradable and comes from either plants or animals. Common examples of organic waste include green waste, food waste, food-soiled paper, and non-hazardous wood waste.
While biodegradable waste can easily break down in the environment due to conditions and the activity of microorganisms, it’s important to note that organic waste still poses environmental threats when not managed properly, including excess landfill use, the production of methane emissions, and more.
For that reason, organic waste recycling is crucial in households, small businesses, and large organizations alike.
Common Organic Waste Examples
We encounter organic waste in our everyday lives, whether it’s leftover food, yard trimmings, or used paper products.
To get a better idea of what this entails, here are some of the common examples of organic waste:
- Food waste: Food waste is a huge contributor to the overall production of organic waste. Food waste—which includes vegetable and fruit scraps, grains, meat, dairy, bread, and more—is the result of household waste, unsold food from retailers, plate waste at restaurants, and by-products from processing facilities, among other reasons.
- Garden clippings: Grass clippings, leaves, small branches, shrubs, and trimmings from plants and flowers are all considered “green waste.” These materials, which are high in nitrogen, are essential for creating a healthy composting environment.
- Animal manure: Animal manure is another great example of organic waste. In fact, livestock manure is a valuable resource for organic and sustainable soil management.
- Food-soiled paper: Food-soiled paper includes napkins, used coffee filters, food paper wraps, stained pizza boxes, and paper plates and cups that don’t contain thin plastic lining.
Why Is Organic Waste Management Important?
When left unmanaged, organic waste can negatively impact the environment in multiple ways, such as contributing to increased pollution and the loss of biodiversity.
Among these environmental impacts, one of the biggest concerns regarding food waste is its contribution to methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas that’s produced when food waste decomposes in landfills. According to the EPA, wasted food in the U.S. causes greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 50 million gas-powered passenger vehicles.
In addition, when food is wasted, all of the valuable resources required to produce it are also wasted, including water, land, energy, and labor. The World Resource Institute states that food that’s ultimately lost or wasted globally consumes about a quarter of all water used by agriculture, representing a missed opportunity to use these resources more efficiently.
For the above reasons, having a comprehensive waste management strategy in place is crucial, as improper organic waste disposal, such as sending organic trash to landfills, exacerbates environmental issues.
That said, everyone can do their part to divert food from landfills, therefore lowering greenhouse gas emissions, improving soil quality, and conserving natural resources.
5 Key Strategies for Organic Waste Management
There are various strategies that companies can use to minimize the environmental impact of food waste. This includes: composting, landfill diversion, anaerobic digestion, waste-to-energy solutions, and on-site organic waste processing.
Keep reading to explore each of these approaches in more detail.
1. Composting
Composting food waste is a valuable waste management approach that turns food waste into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. In addition to diverting food waste from landfills, compost improves soil fertility and promotes higher yields in agriculture, making it a highly appealing option for many businesses.
Typically, the composting process requires a ratio of green waste (nitrogen-rich materials like food waste) and brown waste (carbon-rich materials like leaves and wood chips). During this process, microorganisms break down the organic waste into compost, requiring the right temperature, moisture level, and oxygen flow to maintain a healthy composting environment.
One of the benefits of composting is that it can be used by households and businesses of any size. Households can create their own compost pile or get involved in community initiatives, while businesses can create an on-site composting program or partner with a waste management company to facilitate efforts.
2. Landfill Diversion
As the name suggests, landfill diversion is the process of diverting waste from landfills. This is an umbrella term to represent all the organic waste recycling efforts that redirect food waste to more sustainable outlets, such as composting facilities, anaerobic digestion plants, and food donation programs.
Since there are many approaches that can be utilized, there are various ways for individuals and businesses to get involved. This includes participating in municipal programs that encourage waste separation, creating an at-home compost pile, encouraging employees to get involved in large-scale composting initiatives, and educating others on the importance of landfill diversion.
3. Anaerobic Digestion
Anaerobic digestion is an organic waste management approach in which bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. While this process does occur naturally in some environments, it’s also mimicked on an industrial scale to handle large-scale food waste. The result is two valuable byproducts: biogas (a renewable energy source) and digestate (a nutrient-rich substance that can be used as fertilizer).
In addition to diverting food from landfills, biogas and digestate offer various benefits to the environment, such as lowering greenhouse gas emissions, aiding in nutrient recovery, and improving soil health.
Large-scale anaerobic digesters are used in various ways, such as in agriculture to manage organic residues like animal manure, and by municipalities to process household and commercial waste.
4. Waste-to-Energy (WTE)
Waste-to-energy involves various technologies that convert waste into usable forms of energy, such as electricity and heat. The EPA identifies the various processes that can be utilized to accomplish this, including combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas recovery. There are various benefits to this approach, including reduced landfill use, the opportunity for resource recovery, and the production of renewable energy.
That said, there are also environmental concerns surrounding this method. When not properly treated, biogas made from energy conversion processes can release substances such as sulfur dioxide, ammonia, and nitrogen oxide, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.
That said, the emergence of new technologies helps address these concerns, with solutions like modern anaerobic digestors increasing the efficiency of the entire process.
5. On-Site Organic Waste Processing for Businesses
One of the options available to businesses is implementing their own on-site waste processing system, which is especially beneficial in high-waste-generating industries such as restaurants and farms. This helps them reduce greenhouse gas emissions, achieve sustainability goals, and enhance their brand image.
While there are various options available, composting and anaerobic digestion are popular approaches for on-site solutions.
By having an on-site system, businesses can eliminate the need for off-site landfill disposal, leading to long-term cost savings. In addition, businesses can use these systems for additional applications or revenue streams. For instance, if you implement a composting program to manage organic trash, you can use the compost to enhance your landscaping or sell it for profit, providing an additional incentive.
For those that aren’t interested in implementing on-site solutions, waste management companies like Shapiro can help you streamline the entire process, assisting with food waste collection and treatment.
Challenges in Organic Waste Management
There are multiple challenges that businesses may face when implementing organic waste recycling, including:
- Lack of infrastructure: Without proper infrastructure, businesses cannot collect, treat, and recycle waste. That said, infrastructure issues depend on the location and resources available, as there may be distinct challenges depending on where you live. For instance, urban areas often have limited space and large quantities of waste, while rural areas may have less access to large-scale facilities or face longer transportation distances.
- High costs: High costs associated with organic waste management are a big barrier in both urban and rural areas. This is especially true for smaller businesses with fewer resources. To overcome these challenges, many state and local governments offer financial incentives and grants to assist companies.
- Public awareness gaps: Awareness is the first step to large-scale change. However, many businesses and individuals remain unaware of the severity of the food waste crisis, resulting in limited efforts toward organic waste recycling. By increasing awareness campaigns, more people can recognize the importance of this issue, enabling them to better understand how to implement advanced waste management in their own company.
- Logistics: There are various logistical challenges that also must be addressed. This includes high transportation costs, the need for frequent collection systems, a lack of processing facilities, and strict environmental regulations. While these issues exist everywhere, they are especially challenging in areas with fewer resources.
The Future of Organic Waste Management
The future of organic waste management is bright, with emerging trends and innovations paving the way toward sustainable solutions.
Future trends in food waste include the adoption of advanced technologies, such as AI-driven systems, to enhance inventory management, optimize the collection and transportation of waste, automate sorting processes, provide real-time data, and more.
New waste-to-energy technologies are also on the rise, including anaerobic digestion, plasma gasification, and hydrothermal carbonization, among others. The adoption of these technologies not only helps reduce landfill waste but also converts organic materials into valuable energy sources, contributing to a more circular economy.
Even more, we expect to see an increase in businesses adopting biodegradable packaging. The benefit of biodegradable packaging is that it can be broken down by microorganisms, therefore reducing overall waste in the food industry.
Overall, increased regulations and consumer awareness are pushing industries to adopt more sustainable practices. Over time, we expect to see an even greater adoption of organic waste recycling, therefore helping the U.S. reach its goal of cutting food loss and waste in half by the year 2030.
Conclusion
Sustainable organic waste disposal should be a top priority for businesses of all sizes. As your business navigates organic waste management, you should explore the various approaches available, including composting, anaerobic digestion, and partnering with a reliable waste management company.
At Shapiro, we’ll work with you to create a food waste solution that’s tailored to the unique needs of your business. When you partner with us, we’ll ensure you achieve your sustainability goals, stay compliant, and set new standards in your industry.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
Baily Ramsey, an accomplished marketing specialist, brings a unique blend of anthropological insight and marketing finesse to the digital landscape. Specializing in educational content creation, she creates content for various industries, with a particular interest in environmental initiatives.
