The U.S. is committed to reducing food waste by 50% by 2030. To divert food waste from landfills, Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) promotes anaerobic digestion and composting of food waste; however, contamination of food waste with packaging (including film plastics) may complicate composting and anaerobic digestion operations and decrease the market desirability and safety of land application of the compost and digestate made from food waste. De-packaging technologies (beyond screens and filters) are increasingly being used by large food waste generators and treatment facilities as primary means of removing plastics. This product will test the performance of de-packaging equipment available on the market in real-world settings. Research will characterize the plastics, including quantity and particle size, in food waste streams before and after the use of de-packaging technologies. The results from this study will be useful to OLEM, restaurant and commercial kitchen operators, food retailers, composters, and wastewater treatment facility staff across the U.S. as they seek to exclude plastics (including micro-plastics) from the food waste stream.
Key Words: Food waste, landfill diversion, waste management, sustainable materials management, plastics, food de-packaging, secondary data, existing data, EPA QA R/5, flowsa, scifinder.
This work is related to additional food waste research under SHC RA7, including life-cycle analyses of various approaches to managing food waste.
US EPA Office of Research and Development CESER | Center for Environmental Solutions & Emergency Response https://intranet.ord.epa.gov/ceser
LRTD | Land Remediation & Technology Division https://intranet.ord.epa.gov/ceser/land-remediation-technology-division
EDAB | Environmental Decision Analytics Branch https://intranet.ord.epa.gov/ceser/environmental-decision-analytics-branch
26 W. Martin Luther King Dr. (ML-CHL) Cincinnati, OH 45268-3001
Contact Manager: Michael Gonzalez, Chief, EDAB (gonzalez.michael@epa.gov) Contact Output Lead: David Meyer (meyer.david@epa.gov) Contact Product Lead: Daniel Young (young.daniel@epa.gov)
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