ROOM AT THE TABLE - Intersight - University at Buffalo

energy. Traditional methods include incineration, and more nontraditional
methods included anaerobis digestions to generate bio­gas.
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facilities, claims to provide “a source of clean energy that reduces overall
greenhouse gas emissions” and an environmentally­viable alternative to
30#1)33( $/"+0-'( ,#( N+,'( 7"%#/568 Covanta’s Niagara Resource Recovery
Facility in Niagara Falls, NY, which services Erie County, began operations
in 1980 and receives up to 800,000 tons of all Municipal Food Waste annually
from participating municipalities and private haulers. Steam created by the
energy­to­waste process produces 80 megawatts of electricity hourly, which
is exported to the New York State Power Grid. 9 Covanta operations annually
convert 20 million tons of garbage into 9 million megawatt­hours of energy
worldwide. 10 About 33 percent of all municipal solid waste generated in the
County is sent to Covanta Niagara.
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be used to convert to energy using Covanta’s methods, 2009 yields would
have amounted to approximately 27,981.45 megawatt­hours of energy. 11
Nonetheless, there are concerns about energy from waste methods such
as those used by Covanta, due to potential pollution and health risks.
Anaerobic digestion and other energy from waste methods remain a potential
opportunity.
58
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LOCAL HIGHLIGHT
In the past three years on the campuses of the
University at Buffalo, unused food collection
services from cafeterias and other food retailers
have become a successful example for reusing food
waste. Using the same infrastructure as the University’s
leading recycling efforts, Campus Dining and Shops
conserves food for composting. This program began
in individual dining halls to keep food scraps from
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food saved each day, requesting more food waste bins
to maximize efforts with both raw and cooked food,
each destined for composting.
Food scraps were used in traditional composting
pile method of gradual biochemical degradation
into a product suited to enrich soils with nutrients
in fertilizers and mulches. This became a money‐
saving measure for the University’s landscaping
budget, as the nutrient‐rich materials were produced
in‐house. However, the popularity of the salvage
efforts overburdened the on‐campus project for this
traditional method of composting.
The University sought new measures to compost
9-+#%#5>71#$4()0%'$"%7-$7(."#"%4,'4%'%9#7,'$1L#"%
decomposer would be an effective alternative
to the traditional composting method. A $25,000
decomposer system purchased from Eco‐Smart Co.
Ltd., a South Korean company, now handles most
of the food scrap composting; food that cannot be
ground by the decomposer is sent to a commercial
composter in Lancaster NY. The decomposer machine
replicates the composting process, but performs
faster: it can break down the same waste in fourteen
hours that would have taken months with traditional
methods.