JUDY WOODRUFF: In the final
episode of our special series
this week on food waste, we
look at some innovative
solutions being developed
to deal with the growing
problem of spoiled
and surplus food
in this country.
Special correspondent Allison
Aubrey visited a state where
dairy farmers are using it to
power their farms and more.
ALLISON AUBREY: It's
burger night at Barstow's
Dairy and Bakery at
Longview Farm in Hadley,
Massachusetts, and the
Pioneer Valley String
Band has drawn a crowd.
As advertised, the burgers
are born and raised here.
But the cows on this farm
produce more than just meat.
DENISE BARSTOW, Barstow's
Longview Farm: Our cows are
producing about a hundred pounds
of cow manure per cow per
day, and we're treating
it through this system
and getting electricity,
renewable energy that's coming
right here from the farm.
ALLISON AUBREY: The system that
seventh-generation farmer Denise
Barstow is talking about is
an anaerobic digester.
Those green towers
are part of it.
She's one of a handful of
dairy farmers in Massachusetts
using this technology.
Just down the road, dairy farmer
Peter Melnik is using it, too.
STEVEN MELNIK, Bar-Way Farm:
We are taking food waste from
all over the greater Boston
area and our very
own cow manure.
We mix them together
in the digester vessel
and make electricity.
ALLISON AUBREY: This land
has been in Melnik's family
for four generations.
But times are tough
for dairy farmers, so
Melnik has diversified.
His land is now part farm, and
part renewable energy plant.
The process starts here.
STEVEN MELNIK: This
is the manure pit, as
we like to call it.
ALLISON AUBREY: But he
needs more than manure.
The trick to making this
waste-to-energy system
profitable is volume,
and Melnik has found
an abundant source.
Millions of pounds each year of
surplus and spoiled food that
would otherwise be destined
for a landfill now arrives at
his farm in trucks like this.
The food scraps are ground
up into a liquid slurry that
gets pumped into this pit.
The more you add, the more
electricity you can make.
The waste comes from all over.
There's unsold produce
from whole foods, scraps
and whey from a Cabot
butter plant, and spent
grain from a local brewery.
STEVEN MELNIK: Inside the
digester, it's about almost
a million gallon tank.
It's heated to 105 degrees.
And inside there
are tiny microbes.
ALLISON AUBREY: Microbes from
these cow's digestive tracks
and the rotting food produce
methane, which is
usually released into
the atmosphere, playing
a role in climate change.
But, here, when the gas is
captured, it's stored in these
big black bubbles, and Melnik
can actually generate
power from it.
STEVEN MELNIK: We
produce a megawatt of
electricity every hour.
ALLISON AUBREY:
How much is that?
STEVEN MELNIK: A megawatt is
enough to power the digester
and the dairy farm, our houses
and outbuildings out here, and
we still have 90 percent of
our electricity left over to
be put back on the grid.
ALLISON AUBREY: And
the other 90 percent?
It powers some of the
businesses that send their
food waste to the digesters.
It also powers two local towns.
They're able to purchase the
electricity at a 10 percent
to 15 percent discount.
So, what is it that
you get from this?
How does this help
your bottom line?
STEVEN MELNIK: We are
getting about $100,000
a year in savings.
ALLISON AUBREY: The digesters
are built and run by a company
called Vanguard Renewables.
The company pays farmers a fee
for the use of their land and
gives them free electricity
to power their farms and houses.
In addition to the economic
boost, Melnik says he likes
the environmental benefits.
STEVEN MELNIK: I don't need
an app or an environmental
calculator to tell me
that this thing just
makes sense.
Having such a closed-loop
system, it's really been neat to
see the connection between all
the food companies.
ALLISON AUBREY: One player
in this loop is Whole Foods.
Seventeen of their
stores participate.
They ship 50 to 100
tons of food waste every
week to their digesters.
At the stores, they grind up
food they can't sell or donate,
and then truck it to Melnik's
farm.
Whole Foods' Karen
Franczyk explains.
KAREN FRANCZYK, Whole Foods:
Anything that ends up going
to landfill or incineration
costs us more money.
That is the most
expensive way to get rid
of waste in our stores.
ALLISON AUBREY: So,
sending the waste to the
anaerobic digester is
cheaper, and can help
reduce the ecological footprint.
Up to 10 percent of all
greenhouse gas emissions
are linked to food waste.
And in 2014, Massachusetts
passed a law to ban
food companies from
sending their waste
to landfills.
It applies to all businesses
that generate over a ton
of food waste a week.
So far, four other states in the
U.S. have passed similar bans.
JOHN MAJERCAK, President,
Center for EcoTechnology: Each
part of the food waste stream.
ALLISON AUBREY: John Majercak
is president of the Center
for EcoTechnology, a nonprofit
that helps businesses
in Massachusetts save
energy and reduce waste.
JOHN MAJERCAK: To transport
food waste super long distances
is very expensive and also
wasteful.
So the idea was to try and put
dots on a map all across the
state close to where the waste
is produced, so that it could
be used to produce energy.
And the state did this by
incentivizing the development
of these digesters.
ALLISON AUBREY: Those dots are
now sprinkled across the state,
and incentives came in the
form of grants given
to the companies to
build the digesters.
John Hanselman is
Vanguard's CEO.
He says he is inspired by what
has happened in Europe, where
there are over 17,000 digesters
and government policies to
promote renewable energy.
JOHN HANSELMAN, CEO, Vanguard
Renewables: So we saw what
was happening in Europe, where
anaerobic digestion is
extremely widespread.
Across the United
States, we don't have
that incentive program.
We don't have the federal
energy policy or any
federal benefits for
anaerobic digestion.
I think we are at the cusp.
We are at the early days.
We have finally got
the economics to work.
ALLISON AUBREY: Hanselman
says, after six years in the
making, he expects to make a
profit this year, and he's
optimistic about the growth.
This waste-to-energy approach
is new in the U.S., and the
extent to which it can take
off may depend on how much
states or the federal government
are willing to incentivize it.
In Massachusetts, it took two
new laws, a food waste ban,
and a renewable energy law,
plus grants to make it happen.
Farmer Denise Barstow is
glad it's all worked out.
DENISE BARSTOW: You can't just
work really hard anymore and
make it in the dairy industry.
You have to work
smarter, not just harder.
And part of that is diversifying
in a way that is better for
the land, better for the
animals and better for
the next generation.
ALLISON AUBREY: For the
"PBS NewsHour," I'm Allison
Aubrey of NPR News in
Hadley, Massachusetts.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can
see all of our stories on the
topic of food waste on our
home page.
That's PBS.org/NewsHour.