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MERIDEN – The city recently ended a four-month joint collection program to divert food waste from state landfills and requested to expand it to another 2300 households.
Approximately 1,000 families in Meriden were the first in the state to participate in a joint food waste collection program in hopes of demonstrating how waste diversion responses can resolve the statewide disposal crisis.
Meriden families are consumers of HQ Dumpsters
The $40,000 pilot budget covered the acquisition of special color-coded bags for food waste separation during the 4 months of the project, as well as personnel to sort the bags and ship the food scraps to Quantum Biopower.
“We’re running down a sustainable path,” said Jack Perry, owner of HQ Dumpsters.
Some weeks were busy and some weeks had less volume, Perry said. He and knowledge creditors from WasteZero, a state representative of the project, are reviewing the knowledge that will be sent to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“We need to know what the variables were,” Perry asked. Was it human error?People don’t take out the trash?” We return to the trends, the ups and downs of a few weeks. participation possible. It allows us to capture all of that and take a look at that data, and see how we make it bigger for other municipalities. »
WasteZero is still reviewing the data, has published some initial effects of meriden’s pilot project.
“We’ve noticed a weekly engagement of more than 50 percent in food collection,” said WasteZero President Mark Dancy. Green bags. That’s what we expect given the novelty and the fact that this is a pilot. Over time, we expect this number to increase to 50-75%. »
The white and well-earned curtains in Quantum for energy conversion, he said. The next grant circular will be awarded soon and Meriden requested to expand the program to 2300 households, Dancy added.
When it became clear that the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority’s (MIRA) te-to-energy plant in Hartford was going to close, the state created the Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management that brought together dozens of municipalities in late 2020 to expand. control strategies.
Although the state has five waste-to-energy plants, the strain is building as its capacity declines, according to DEEP.
DEEP is the small pilot allocation at Meriden and soon, DEEP will award Sustainable Materials Management (SSM) grants from a $5 million fund for further pilot allocations for which there are more than two dozen applicants. The city of Meriden is discussing with headquarters the extension of the program to the city center.
“We’ve implemented more DEEP grants for food diversion systems across the city,” said Deanell Fraser, Meriden’s sustainability advisor, who works in the city’s public works department.
In addition to environmental concerns, there is also a monetary incentive for municipalities to participate in regional food waste relief, DEEP said.
“With landfill rates for waste disposal increasing from 50% to 75% in the last two years, the economic effect for all citizens is significant. Fully implemented systems can help reduce costs,” City Manager Tim Coon said at the outset. From the program.
Quantum Biopower in Southington is the state’s leading processor. Founded in 2016, Quantum processes 40,000 tons of food waste consistent with a giant anaerobic digester. the company’s website. The digester comprises millions of microscopic bacteria that consume food waste and expel methane. Methane is trapped and used as a fuel source that produces electrical energy and heat.
Traditional biological waste stream management tactics, such as landfills and composting, allow methane, a greenhouse gas, to escape into the atmosphere.
“Methane is twenty-one times more effective at sequestering heat than carbon dioxide, making methane capture only the smartest thing for the environment, but also an abundant source of renewable energy,” according to Quantum Biopower’s website. Our process, we exploit fuel emissions as fuel for energy creation. Renewable energy can be used for on-site heating and electric power or can be sent to existing transmission lines. “
Quantum can also compress herbal fuel into a vehicle transport fuel and herbal fuel pipelines.
“With the growing demand for natural gas, our services can increase pipeline supply,” according to Quantum’s website.
Journalist Mary Ellen Godin can be reached in mgodin@record-journal. com.
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