Partnership to Reduce Food Waste Attracting Attention
Guilford College and Guilford Dining are working with Waste Industries USA on a greener way to dispose of campus food waste, and that effort has caught the attention of local media.
Guilford Dining has been using a Food Waste Digester, a machine that uses patented microbes to break down food waste into liquid within 24 hours, provided by Waste Industries. The liquid is disposed of via the wastewater system.
Since the digester was installed in late summer, the College has been able to divert approximately 9,000 pounds of food waste per month from landfills.
The digester has been covered by WFMY, The Business Journal of the Triad and News 14 Carolina.
The Food Waste Digester is a “perfect fit,” said Chris Blain, the retail and sustainability manager for Guilford Dining, a collaboration between Meriwether Godsey and Guilford College.
“It is essentially a mechanical stomach that breaks down food and eliminates it in an ecological way that aligns with the College’s stance on environmental sustainability. This technology allows us to manage food waste that composting alone could not.”
Before the digester was introduced, managing the amount of daily food waste generated overwhelmed the College’s composting capability. Either the quality of the compost was being jeopardized or some food waste was heading to landfills.
