Food waste kitchen sink disposers by VA Syd: from waste to biogas
Working with the municipal water company VA Syd, the City of Malmö has established a pilot project in which kitchen waste disposers have been installed in 200 homes as an easy-to-manage method of dealing with food waste.
In the waste disposer, the ground food waste falls into a tank, while the water runs to the wastewater pipes. A sludge suction truck collects the waste for the local wastewater treatment plant, which uses it to produce biogas. The biogas is employed to produce electricity and heating, with a consequent reduction of CO2 emissions.
For more information on the different types of waste disposers, please refer to the following article titled New Collection System for Food Waste to Biogas.
According to Sweden’s environmental protection agency (Naturvårdsverket),
- the system produces 0,9–4,9 m3 biogas per apartment and year, compared with 0,6–1,8 m3 for ordinary refuse separation,
- the quality of the organic matter is high enough that no post-processing or processing is needed for it to be used for biogas production, which saves costs,
- in addition, the food waste disposer has acted as a catalyst for personal environmental thinking for many residents.