Recipient Organization
ANCHORAGE, MUNICIPALITY OF (INC)
632 W 6TH AVE
ANCHORAGE,AK 99501
Performing Department
SOLID WASTE SERVICES ANCHORAGE
Non Technical Summary
The purpose of the project is to discover a way for the City of Anchorage to divert more organics from the landfill. The Anchorage Regional Landfill has less than 40 years of useful life, and our landfill continues to produce increasingly more landfill gas. The focus of this project is to work with commercial kitchens, large food waste generators, and purchase commercial dehydrators and establish infrastructure for collection, transporation, storing and applying the dehydrate. Two years ago, the City of Anchorage convened stakeholders called the Anchorage Compost Coaltion, that identified priorities such as composting year round and minimizing the transportation time, cost and impact on the environment. Currently the Solid Waste Services composting program consists of curbside collections in a defined service area of Anchorage. Once the curbside organics are collected, it is combined with compostables collected by private haulers at the anchorage Regional Landfill and then transported to a farm in the Matanuska Valley. Round trip, from Anchorage is approximately 94 miles using a tractor trailer. SWS determined early in the curbside composting program that the containers tend to turn into organic popsicles, freezing in the containers making disposal troublesome so the program runs May through October. It is difficult to encourage behavior change then pause putting organics in the dump during the frozen months.The dehydrate sounds like the perfect option for Anchorage. Targeting commercial waste large food waste generators means that we will have tighter controls on what goes in to the dehydrators. Outputs will include careful monitoring and data analysis of the input, processing, output, and application.In addition, once the liquid is removed from the food waste, we are told the dehydrate has no smell, will be exponentially densified, and is shelf-stable. Data includes the volume output, what containers and how can it bestored. Transportation is another important part of the project. Choosing what containers to match the volume output, energy used, and which trucks will be ulitized, how will the dehydrate be stored are all outputs from this study. Application of the dehydrate is also part of this study. Alaska has very young, nutrient deficient soils. Can the dehydrate by applied directly to soils as an amendment, how does it react when contacting water, in various applications, can it be added to a compost mix, fed to livestock, chickens or the fish hatchery? If we are able to find that the dehydrators do not take too much staffing time, energy, and are efficient in producing a shelf-stable product that can be applied in various scenarios, perhaps Anchorage can meet the goals of the coalition, to compost year round, divert more organic material from the landfill, and regenerate soils for food security, and feed livestock right here in Anchorage.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
The Municipality of Anchorage Solid Waste Enterprise utility seeks to meet the overarching goal of stimulation of diverting commercial food waste from the landfillyear-round. This project will generate organic material that can be used in composting and increase access to composting ingredients for agricultural urban producers. The dehydrated commercial food waste will be tested for use as a soil amendment and possibly livestock feed and fish food. Alaska's soils are young and nutrient deficient, therefore producing a dehydrated material could minimize the need for the use of fertilizer. The dehydrate could improve soil quality and encourage waste management and permaculture business development. The focus of this grant is to purchase and test the processes of dehdrating commercial food waste, establishing the infrastructure for processing, transporting, and application.
Project Methods
Phase One: Acquisition and Design: SWS named as the awardee, and Sub-Awardees identified.Begin Project Planning and Execution Award executed, Sub-Award contracts in place, program plans confirmed with the pilot site host. Convene a collaboration meeting of all stakeholdersto discuss logistics, and plan overall communication and community education. Engineering and design of the fully enclosed mobile dehydrator unit along with considerations for electrical, ventilation, solar array connectivity and materials storage.Purchasing, Manufacturing, Establishing Data and Communications PlansPurchase and install food waste dehydrator at the demonstration site.Installation to include training for kitchen staff.Design tracking and tracing mechanism, data collection plan and establish a communications plan between project investigator and kitchen site managers as well as collaboration with partners.Phase Two: OperationsBegin operation. Initiate and implement ongoing evaluation of overall logistics, staff operations through quarterly interviews with kitchen staff, and daily/weekly/monthly monitoring of dehydration machine data logs and tracking all dehydrated material by time, date, operator.Begin transport and store dehydrated waste for testing and distribution.Begin ongoing public outreach and education through a Municipal press release, presentations, partner social media and on-site signage and information.Testing, Evaluation, and Analysis, and continued implementation Municipality of Anchorage, Solid Waste Services (SWS) Food Waste Reduction, Dehydration, and Composting pilot project.Continue on-site operations and data collection.Continue ongoing public outreach and education through local press, presentations, social media and on-site signage and information.Implement farm animal and compost testing. Results and data to be shared for quarterly and end project reporting. Animal feed testing will be by Euorfins Laboratory or similar. Testing for compost feedstock will be conducted by a US Composting Council certified laboratory.Implementation and TestingContinue on-site operations and data collection:Initiate distribution of dehydrated food waste to urban farms for animal feed and compost feedstock for use, vermiculture and soil amendment, evaluation and analysis.Add to ongoing public outreach and education through Municipal press release, Partnert social media and on-site signage and information.PHASE Three:Evaluation, Analysis and ReportingEvaluation, analysis, final report preparation and submission, presentations to share findings (program outreach) should there result in favorable findings.Assessment of program and planning next steps to continue operations.