4 Responsible Ways to Recycle Food Waste

Diverting food away from the commonly used option of landfills is a significant step towards reducing the carbon footprint. It will also help capture renewable energy and restore essential nutrients to the soil. 

Just like glass, metal and many other utilities, food waste is recyclable, and recycling should become part of your routine in order to play your part in reducing the prevalence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 

Here are 4 responsible ways to recycle food waste. 

1. Community Composting

Community composting is one of the most undemanding solutions to food waste recycling. It is eco-friendly and can be done at a small scale or a large scale depending on where you live. Some cities have organised a system where waste collection trucks come around the residential areas collecting waste. If this is not the case in your state, look around for a neighbourhood composting facility where you can divert your domestic food waste. 

Ensure you conduct some research on the local composting facility regulations. 

2. Onsite Composting

While it has a similar concept as community composting, onsite composting is more personal and easy to manage. Select a site in your backyard where you will be disposing of your waste. Place the compost pile comprising of leftover foods, greens, dead leaves, fireplace ash and even recyclable packaging material. 

Ensure you water it on a regular basis. Once it has decomposed and attained a dark, dry and crumbly texture, you can proceed to use it to feed tour kitchen garden and flower beds. 

3. Animal Feed

If composting seems like a lot of work for you, or if you do not have the time to see it through, you can also donate your food waste to be used as animal feed. Contact your local waste recycler and find out what foods are allowed according to law to donate to animal feed processing plants, to a farm or to a zoo. 

4. Biogas Production

Food waste contains a lot of untapped potential to generate energy through a waste-to-energy system. Anaerobic digestion can make use of microorganisms to degrade the food waste's organic matter to produce methane gas, which can be an ingredient to the production of electricity and fuel for heat and transportation.  As the world goes green, biogas is an excellent solution since it is a renewable and sustainable source of energy developed from various forms of organic matter.

The last few decades have seen the concern for environmental sustainability rise significantly. It is important that you play your part in this life-saving mission. Follow these 4 tips to improve your food waste recycling efforts.