Throughout Massachusetts, anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities, municipal composting programs, and farm-based composters and digesters are working to divert food waste from landfills and waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities. The pace of this work increased in 2014 with passage of the state’s organic waste ban. Research initiated by U.S. EPA and Eastern Research Group studied the relative environmental impacts and economic costs of select food waste recycling and disposal options in Massachusetts. While the pathways modeled here are specific to Massachusetts, the comparative systems level analysis framework could be applied to other communities trying to determine the environmentally preferable and cost-effective management option(s). This article provides a summary of the study’s findings. More >>
