As California moves towards higher diversion and recycling goals, food waste has become a high priority for some innovative companies looking to take organics recycling head on. One of these progressive players is South San Francisco Scavenger (SSFS) and sister company Blue Line Transfer (BLT) located in one of the West Coast’s most densely populated areas. Back in 2015, SSFS partnered with Zero Waste Energy to build and operate the Blue Line Biogenic CNG facility. Both green waste and food waste provide the fuel that allows the AD (anaerobic digestion) system to produce CNG for their fleet of collection vehicles reducing their dependence on fossil fuels. As a result, the companies were awarded the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA’s) 2015 Recycling Equipment Innovator of the Year.
The Future of Depackaging Equipment
SSFS has now taken its organics operation a step further: de-packaging contaminated food waste with the Scott “THOR” Turbo Separator. Establishing a steady stream of food waste was not a problem, the vast amounts of plastic, paper, metal, and other non-organics found in the incoming streams was the new road block. Processing at high rate through a horizontal mill with 56 swing-hammers; the THOR produces an organic mash or cake containing less than 1% non-organics. When you consider SSFS is feeding its dry AD with better than 99% clean mash from feedstock that is marginally higher than MSW in organic content; the signs are there that the innovation is continuing in a big way. Last week, attendees from several composting, AD, and recycling companies were treated to a tour of the SSFS & BLT organics operation. All had a chance to see a next step in what is quickly becoming a formidable challenge for waste and recycling organizations. The team at Olympic Equipment is fortunate to work with these pioneers of large scale de-packaging of contaminated food waste streams. If you’d like to learn more about SSFS & BLT click on the link below.
Olympic is committed to providing solutions to the challenges of food waste through the processing superiority of the Scott Turbo Separator, as well as, a total system approach. Stay tuned on updates on this and other projects that we are partnered with. If you have any questions email sj@olympiceqipment.com