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Groundbreaking food waste diversion pilot program for apartment buildings

City of Belleville Pilots Apartment Complex Onsite Food Waste Recycling Tech from Food Cycle Science

 

The City of Belleville has successfully completed a trailblazing food waste diversion pilot program designed specifically for apartment buildings. This first-of-its-kind initiative, carried out in partnership with Thurlow Housing and Food Cycle Science, involved deploying 13 FoodCycler Eco 5 food recyclers in an apartment building to test their effectiveness and viability for organic waste diversion in the multi-residential setting.

 

 

While Food Cycle Science's Municipal Division has been partnering with municipalities since 2020, deploying FoodCyclers into households as part of food waste diversion programs, this initiative marks the first program tailored specifically for multi-residential buildings. Over 150 municipalities across North America have implemented the FoodCycler Diversion Program, ranging from small-scale pilots to comprehensive city-wide organics programs.

 

Managing food waste in apartment buildings presents unique challenges compared to single-family homes. Most apartment buildings lack solutions for food waste, leading residents to dispose of food waste in the garbage. This practice contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions and strains landfill capacities.

 

While Belleville provides a curbside organics collection service to single-family homes, this service does not extend to its approximately 9,000 apartment units.

In response, Belleville's Green Task Force Committee decided to pilot the FoodCycler program in one apartment building. The pilot ran from January to April 2024, with residents in 13 apartment units tracking their weekly usage of the FoodCycler. At the end of the 12-week pilot, residents completed an exit survey, providing usage data and feedback.

 

The results, presented to the Green Task Force Committee on May 31, 2024, were highly positive. Residents are on track to divert an estimated 350 kg of food waste per year per apartment unit, based on the quantities recorded during the pilot. Participants noted a substantial reduction in their weekly garbage and praised the ease and convenience of managing food waste with the FoodCycler. Both residents and the property manager expressed gratitude to the City of Belleville for enabling this innovative and convenient method of diverting food waste from landfills.

 

Each apartment unit is estimated to divert 771.6 lbs (350kg) per year

 

Based on the data from this pilot program, if FoodCyclers were deployed in each of the 9,000 apartment units in the City, approximately 3.1 million kg (3,100 metric tonnes) of food waste would be diverted from the landfill annually. This is equal to 4,650 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalents annually, the same impact as taking 1,100 gas-powered cars off the road every year.

 

 

The success of this pilot program demonstrates the viability of the FoodCycler Municipal Program in the multi-residential setting. The feedback and results show great promise for replicating this program in condos and apartment buildings across North America.

 

For more information on the FoodCycler Multi-Residential Organics Diversion Program, interested parties can contact municipal@foodcycler.com.