In densely populated cities, a significant part of our household waste is made out of food. Separation goes well in low-rise buildings, where a green container on the doorstep is not an issue. In high-rise buildings, this doesn’t work very well. As a result, much waste goes to waste. Waste disposal becomes more expensive and useful materials don’t get reused.
Smart separation
For easy separation of food waste in flats and apartments, the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Haarlem, Rijkswaterstaat and AMS Institute are testing an innovative system using food waste grinders.
A food waste grinder is a device installed underneath the kitchen sink. Leftover food that ends up in the sink is ground into small pieces.
In many countries, these grinders are common and used to make it easier flushing food scraps down the sewer. In the new Dutch system, these small particles are not flushed through the sewer, but collected in a separate reservoir. The separation is almost automatic. The waste can then be processed into compost or fertilizers.
Testing at the Marineterrein
At the Marineterrein, AMS Institute is investigating how the system works in practice. They test the technical settings and ensure that everything fits within the Dutch rules and legislation. The separated food waste is collected in special containers that the municipality can collect with the normal waste service.
Why is this important?
This approach has several advantages:
The system helps cities like Amsterdam to achieve sustainability goals: less waste and more reuse of raw materials. Knowledge gained from this experiment may also be used by other cities.