Food Waste
Our Goal
 Our goal is to accelerate the development of a local, reliable, environmentally-sound, and economical commercial food waste recovery infrastructure that will provide energy and nutrient-rich soil to New York City.
33 million tonsof food waste are discarded in the US each year. New York City’s accommodation, foodservice, and retail sectors discard 1,100 tons of food waste each day. This food waste is hauled to distant landfills and buried, resulting in a loss of valuable nutrients and energy and at a cost of $84M per year. The quantity of waste and lack of availability of sufficient land area to treat it, land values, zoning ordinances, and potential alterations to trucking routes have made it difficult for waste treatment facilities to be sited in New York City.Diverting this commercial food waste from landfills would result in the avoidance of more than 225,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalence each year, the same as taking 41,000 cars off the road.
Our Approach
Global Green will develop a conceptual plan for recovering the 1,100 tons per day of food waste generated by New York City’s accommodation and foodservice sectors.
Global Green will evaluate two options for siting facilities to recover food waste generated by New York City’s accommodation, food service, and retail food sectors:
- Siting food waste recovery facilities on existing commercial putrescible waste transfer stations; and
- Utilizing transfer stations with rail access to transport food waste outside of the city for recovery within a defined land radius.
From the vantage point of these two siting options, Global Green will develop a profile of design variables the facilities would need to achieve to be feasible, economically viable, and environmentally sound.
Food Waste technologies considered include both those recommended in a report developed by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and those for which a local infrastructure already exists. These include: anaerobic digestion, thermal processing, fermentation, aerobic digestion (in-vessel and windrow composting), and fertilizer manufacture.
The phase I report will contain the following components:
- A vision for the future of commercial food waste recovery in New York City
- Profiles of transfer stations that contain information on capacity, land area, permitting, and opportunities for either co-locating organics recovery facilities or transferring source separated organics for transport by rail to a facility within a defined radius
- NYC-specific design and operation criteria for food waste recovery technology providers considering the siting options.
- Feedback from local community groups regarding impact on communities of proposed options
- Identification of areas where additional information and research is needed
How to Get Involved
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