South Korea Has A Recycling Program That Reuses 90% Of Food Scraps To Grow Scraps

PBS

In South Korea, the staggering quantities of food scraps generated annually rarely find their way to landfills, owing to two key factors. Firstly, the practice has been outlawed since 2005. Secondly, the country boasts an exceptionally sophisticated food waste disposal infrastructure, perhaps unrivalled globally.

Despite exerting a notable strain on the economy, the disposal of food waste yields a plethora of valuable resources. These include substantial quantities of animal feed, fertilizer, and biogas, which in turn is utilized to heat thousands of households.

As reported by John Yoo and Chang Lee for The New York Times, the culinary landscape of South Korea inherently generates food scraps. This is due to the nature of its staple dishes, which are often accompanied by a range of sides, varying from a few to even several dozen.


The cultural inclination towards abundance rather than restraint results in the creation of numerous small servings, encompassing items such as tofu, kimchi, bean sprouts, and other delectable morsels. Were it not for the legislative prohibition, a significant portion of these items would find their way into landfills.

The government’s prohibition stems from the unsuitable mountainous terrain for constructing landfills. Instead, proprietors of restaurants and hawkers opt to affix a designated sticker to specialized bins. Once these bins are filled with food waste, they are placed on the roadside for collection by waste collectors. An astonishing 90% of the country’s food waste is directed to specialized collection facilities through this process.

In residential complexes and housing areas, state-of-the-art food waste disposal machines are operated via keycards, granted to residents under contractual arrangements with disposal companies. Post-collection, the food waste undergoes meticulous sorting to eliminate non-food contaminants. The next steps involve draining excess moisture, followed by drying and baking. This process yields a black, soil-like substance which, although it carries an earthy odor, is, in reality, a protein and fiber-rich feed suited for monogastric animals such as chickens and ducks.


This is just one of the techniques employed for processing food scraps. Another approach relies on massive anaerobic digesters, which employ bacteria to break down the food. This process generates a blend of carbon dioxide and methane, a combination that is harnessed for heating purposes. For instance, in a suburb of Seoul known as Goyang, this energy source warms approximately 3,000 homes.

Notably, all the requisite water for this chemical process is derived from the earlier separation of moisture from the food waste. Then, the remaining material is then shipped as fertilizer to other farms that may need them.

Afterwards, the water component undergoes purification before being reintroduced into water supplies or streams. While there have been instances where the noxious smell from these plants led to closure due to local complaints, many of these facilities are now odorless. This is all thanks to the incorporation of a pipe network within the walls that neutralize odors through chemical reactions.

This is the unique approach adopted by South Korea. While it incurs an annual cost of around $600 million, the country has garnered numerous admirers, including New York City, which aspires to implement analogous infrastructure in the forthcoming years.

 

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