With a little help from food pulpers, leftovers from restaurants, hospitals and schools can become food for flowers. In 12 hours, a blueberry pancake left over from a patient’s breakfast becomes a dry, brown, dirt-like substance that the landscaping crew at St. Cloud Hospital in Minnesota uses for fertilizer.
The system grinds and dehydrates the hospital’s food waste, which significantly reduces the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill. The first system of its kind in Minnesota, and one of a growing number in the nation, it converts garbage into a nutrient-rich product that is beneficial to the environment – killing two birds with one stone.
The system transports food waste into a pulper that grinds it up. The mixture is then transported into an extractor, which removes the water. Finally, the product is dried in a dehydrator overnight; cooked at a low temperature until it is powdery, dry and odorless. It can then either be added to compost or worked directly into the soil on the grounds.
Over 34 million tons of food waste was generated each year in the United States alone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and less than 3% is recycled or recovered. It is not only a waste of resources but an ethical concern and an environmental problem, says Jonathan Bloom, author of the book "American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It). "We as a nation and individuals are quite good at wasting food," he added.
In landfills, food rots quickly and creates an additional problem of methane gas, which is a potent greenhouse gas. According to the EPA, methane has over 20 times the global-warming potential of carbon dioxide. The best solution is to reduce the amount of food waste, said Bloom. However, composting is also a progressive way to deal with the waste.
About AllFlowersAndGifts.com
All Flowers And Gifts (http://www.allflowersandgifts.com) proudly provides calgaryflower delivery service throughout Canada and the USA. We have been in the florist industry for many years, both running local flower shops and offering online flower and gift basket delivery.
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