Biodegradable waste is a type of
waste which can be broken down, in a reasonable amount of time, into its
base compounds by micro-organisms and other living things, regardless of what
those compounds may be.
Biodegradable waste can be commonly found in municipal solid waste (sometimes called
biodegradable municipal waste, or BMW) as green waste,
food waste,
paper waste, and biodegradable plastics. Other biodegradable
wastes include human waste, manure, sewage, and slaughterhouse waste. In the absence of oxygen, much of
this waste will decay to methane by anaerobic digestion.
Climate change impacts
The main environmental threat from biodegradable waste is
the production of methane
.
Uses of biodegradable waste
Biodegradable waste can be used for composting or a resource
for heat, electricity and fuel by means of incineration
or anaerobic digestion. Swiss Kompogas and
the Danish AIKAN process are examples of anaerobic digestion of
biodegradable waste.While incineration can recover the most energy, anaerobic
digestion plants retain the nutrients and compost for the soil and still
recover some of the contained energy in the form of biogas. Kompogas
produced 27 million Kwh
of electricity and biogas in 2009. The oldest of the companies own lorries has
achieved 1,000,000 kilometers driven with biogas from household waste in the
last 15 years.
Areas relying on organic waste
Featured in an edition of The
Economist that predicted events in 2014, it was revealed that Massachusetts
creates roughly 1.4 million tons of organic waste every year. Massachusetts,
along with Connecticut and Vermont, are also
going to enact laws to divert food waste from landfills.
In small and densely populated states, landfill capacity is
limited so disposal costs are higher ($60–90 per ton in MA compared to national
average of $45). Decomposing food waste generates methane, a notorious greenhouse
gas. However, this biogas can be captured and turned into energy through
anaerobic digestion, and then sold into the electricity grid.
Anaerobic digestion grew in Europe, but is starting to
develop in America. Massachusetts is increasing its production of anaerobic
digesters.
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