Renewable Natural Gas
Food Waste Recycling
SJI Renewable Energy Ventures and its affiliates turn organic waste into energy, delivering safe and reliable fuels nationwide.
What Do Food Waste Recycling Companies Do?
Food waste recycling companies work with food waste producers and service providers to convert waste into a revenue stream and energy source before it hits landfills.
SJI REV and its affiliates are deeply committed to the ongoing collaboration with waste suppliers and haulers. We help partners work to reduce carbon intensity (CI) by converting waste into a more reliable energy source. In doing so, we help our partners highlight the essential role sustainable fuels can play in their business and the energy transition.
Types of Food Waste Recycling Services
Food waste recycling services typically use composting or anaerobic digestion to capture and refine biogas. Both methods decompose organic material, but one uses oxygen and the two create different outputs.
- Composting is an aerobic process, meaning it involves oxygen. People and organizations compost organics, instead of sending these scraps to an all-purpose landfill with other material. This is a simple process, as the organic matter naturally decomposes into fertilizer.
- Anaerobic digestion involves depositing organic waste into a large, oxygen-free container. Microbial colonies digest the waste, creating two outputs: a solid/liquid digestate that can be used as fertilizer and biogas, which can be purified to create RNG.
Traditional Haulers vs Innovative Recycling Providers
A conventional waste management company focuses on the most cost-effective way to remove garbage. This sounds good, but the vast majority of that refuse typically ends up in landfills, accomplishing nothing but taking up space and potentially releasing harmful gases.
A more reuse- and recycle-minded waste disposal business can harness refuse to create something positive. This might mean recycling plastic and paper, reusing glass and metal, or creating and capturing fertilizer and biogas from organic waste.
Food Waste Collection and Processing Options
Different food waste recycling companies may focus on different sources for their waste. These include:
- Residential curbside: An organization can partner with municipalities or community groups to act as a collection service, picking up residential recycling bins or organic material containers.
- Commercial collection: Commercial food waste is a big issue in the United States — an estimated 30%–40% of the food supply going to waste. However, it’s also a big opportunity for food waste recycling. Restaurants and food producers inevitably have product they can’t serve or use, and this can be ideal for fertilizer or biogas.
- Community drop-offs: A community can set up a large container where residents and small businesses deposit food scraps, yard waste, and other organic material that companies can collect.
- Agricultural collection: The agricultural sector produces a lot of organic waste. For example, a dairy farm has to dispose of a lot of cow manure. By depositing that waste in a digester, they can receive money for the biogas it creates and still use the digestate as fertilizer.
Upcycling and Alternative Food Waste Solutions
Upcycling food waste involves turning unused food, by-products, and commercially nonviable produce into new, high-value products. These solutions change the economic dynamic from a linear produce-consume-dispose model to a more regenerative economy. This is both helpful and sensible given that approximately 30%–40% of global food production is lost or wasted1.
Industries Served by Food Waste Recycling Companies
Restaurants
Restaurants produce a lot of food waste. Recycling that food into compost and RNG creates something positive and gives purpose to all those food scraps.
Hospitals and universities
Buildings with cafeterias have the same food waste problems as restaurants.
Food factories
Large-scale food creation involves massive amounts of product, some of which can’t be sold for numerous reasons.
Farms
From unused feedstock to manure, agriculture creates tons of organic waste.
Hotels
Many hotels have restaurants or otherwise offer room service, so they also produce organic waste.
Grocery stores
Groceries inevitably have food they can’t sell or give away, so food waste recycling offers another option.
Breweries
Producing beer, wine, and spirits can create byproducts that must be thrown away or otherwise recycled.
Environmental and Business Benefits of Food Waste Recycling
Environmental Benefits
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions: Using RNG reduces , resulting in less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
- Cleaner energy: Capturing naturally occurring methane is less environmentally taxing than fracking for natural gas that’s currently trapped underground.
- Enriched soil: Anaerobic digestion still creates digestate that can be used to fertilize soil.
- A regenerative economy: As long as we have dairy farms, food scraps, and other organic waste, we will have a source for biogas.
Business Benefits
- Cost savings: Companies will have a reduced need for services.
- Additional revenue: Businesses can benefit from new revenue streams, such as dairy farms being paid for their cow manure.
- More jobs: RNG capture, synthesizing, and transportation is a burgeoning industry that supports the whole economy.
- Compliance benefits: Organizations can use RNG instead of less environmentally friendly fuels to help meet external or internal sustainability regulations.
How SJI REV’s Affiliates Support Food Waste Recycling Solutions
SJI Renewable Energy Ventures and its affiliates are turning today’s organic waste into pipeline-quality gas. Learn how we can help your business move towards a more sustainable future.