Food waste? Quezon City is looking to turn it into renewable fuel

Shortly after introducing refilling stations at sari-sari shops aimed to assist resolve the plastic air pollution drawback, Quezon City is now boosting its efforts to attenuate meals waste.

The City of Stars has simply acquired 25 biodigesters and meals waste-on-wheels from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Japanese Government, which can assist QC minimize down on its meals waste.

In a press assertion, QC Mayor Joy Belmonte stated, “Food waste constitutes 43% of the total waste generated in the city so we must establish a robust and effective food waste recovery program.”

“These biodigesters and food waste-on-wheels from UNDP and the Japanese Government will help the city attain a low-carbon future,” she added.

According to a press statement, QC will position these 25 biodigesters in urban farms and barangays across the city, including Bagong Pag-asa, Batasan Hills, Payatas, E. Rodriguez, Loyola Heights, and Kamuning to name a few.

A biodigester will also be located at the Joy of Urban Farming Demo-farm to process food waste and showcase the technology.

Meanwhile, the food waste-on-wheels, or Community to Farm Mobile Organic Waste Recovery System. will go around beneficiary barangays, specifically in areas with high concentrations of food establishments to collect food waste that will be fed to the biodigesters.

Biodigesters break down kitchen and food waste such as vegetable peelings and spoiled or tainted food and turn them into biogas, a renewable fuel that can be used for cooking. It’s liquid by-product can be used as soil conditioner for gardening.

Apart from helping reduce total waste in QC and boosting its circular economy, turning food waste into biogas can also help bring down greenhouse gas emissions, which is the most important thing to do in fighting climate change.

See, when food waste is left to decompose in landfills, it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that in a 20-year-period becomes “80 occasions stronger at warming than carbon dioxide,” the UNDP said.

The European Commission adds methane is “the second most essential greenhouse fuel contributor to local weather change following carbon dioxide.”

In a March 2023 report, Carbon Brief  said “the worldwide meals system, from manufacturing via to consumption emits round 1/3 of complete annual greenhouse fuel emissions.”

And food waste “causes roughly half of this,” it continued.

It really is imperative to bring down food waste and levels of methane in the atmosphere because Planet Earth has already warmed 1.1C above pre-industrial levels — mere inches away from the 1.5C limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.

What makes this initiative something of a double good deed stems from the production of biogas from the saved food waste. According a 2018 World Resource Institute paper, biogas made from food waste can significantly reduce emissions.

QC initially has 6 biodigesters installed in public markets and community farms. Coupled with the 25 from the Japanese government and the UNDP, QC Mayor Joy Belmonte said, “This will certainly assist us meet our 50 p.c waste diversion goal as we gear in the direction of a climate-resilient and low-carbon future.”

This is only one of quite a lot of measures the Quezon City authorities has taken to grow to be extra sustainable. This month, it initially launched refilling stations or fundamental commodities in 30 sari-sari shops to scale back not simply plastic waste but additionally plastic manufacturing.

Microplastics are confirmed to be present in Metro Manila air. — GMA Integrated News