What is food scrap diversion?

It it widely accepted that food waste and compostable paper comprised 32% of the industrial, commercial, institutional (ICI) waste stream. Food scrap diversion is a process of turning food scraps and other organic waste into nutrient-rich compost.

Many commercial and institutional facilities such as restaurants, grocery stores, and school and hospital cafeterias are now required to have food waste diversion systems in place. Commercial food waste includes raw and cooked food and other compostable organic material from commercial and institutional premises.

Benefits of Food Scrap Diversion Projects:

• Food scraps are diverted from county landfills, extending the landfill's life.
• The environmental impacts of hauling tons of food scraps to county landfill-air pollution, transportation congestion, depletion of fossil fuels-were avoided. The resulting compost was used to improve local soils.
• As industrial and commercial projects become prevalent, individuals will become more willing to compost their own food scraps at home.
• Selling the resulting compost will allow for payback for project related costs within a few years.