US EPA announces $3 million for 12 food waste AD projects

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected 12 organisations and projects to receive around $3 million (€2.55 million) in funding to help reduce food loss and waste and divert food waste from landfills by expanding anaerobic digestion (AD) capacity in the US.

The project types chosen for funding include feasibility studies, demonstration projects, and technical assistance and training.

“Finding solutions to better curb food waste continues to be a top priority for the Trump Administration,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “This year’s round of innovative community projects is focusing on ways to reduce food waste at the local and state levels and divert it from landfills.”

The projects to receive funding include:

• $300,000 (€255,200) to Montana State University to expand AD capacity in the city of Bozeman. The funding will support a 12-household pilot study in Bozeman to assess the potential of AD of food scraps to produce biofertiliser at household level.


• $299,999 (€255,200) to the University of Missouri, Columbia, to expand AD capacity in the state. The university will establish partnership programmes and training for farmers, schools, AD firms, and governments.


• $129,727 (€110,380) to Washington State University (WSU) to develop multi-partner AD projects in the north-west US. WSU’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources will use the grant to leverage research and data derived from WSU’s partnerships in other state institutions, to identify three optimal areas in Washington for developing successful, multi-partner digester projects.


• $300,000 (€255,200) to Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, to advance the co-digestion of food waste in small-scale farm digesters in the mid-Atlantic region and nationally.


• $300,000 (€255,200) to the University of Illinois, Chicago, to develop a technical and educational assistance programme to aid public water resource recovery facilities and community digesters.


• $298,502 (€253,970) to Emory University to establish a prototype on its campus as a demonstration site for how to design AD that eliminates environmental justice concerns, while demonstrating a solution for increasing AD of food waste.


• $195,426 (€166,270) to Florida Atlantic University to systematically develop the science needed to build the foundation of a regional organics diversion model that takes advantage of excess digester capacity at local wastewater treatment facilities.


• $290,422 (€247,100) to the Center for EcoTechnology, Massachusetts, to work with government agencies, hauliers, food businesses, trade associations, and other entities in New England and the mid-Atlantic to provide technical assistance, training and capacity building that will develop and disseminate AD resources.


• $299,000 (€254,370) to the University of California-Davis to demonstrate a system for biomass recycling that produces a concentrated ammonia fertiliser by optimising their current digester system.


• $182,000 (€154,830) to the City of Oxnard to conduct a feasibility evaluation of the city’s organic waste for AD and to test-run delivery to the city’s wastewater treatment plant for co-digestion.


• $235,440 (€200,290) to the Central New York Technology Development Organisation to install equipment to increase digester capacity, host community education/outreach tours, and develop a case study for this demonstration project.


• North Central Texas Council of Governments in Arlington, Texas - The council plans to coordinate with stakeholders in the north-central Texas region to complete a food waste to fuel feasibility study.