Greenwire.com
Tuesday December 23, 2008
Sara Goodman, E&E reporter
Some people trash their leftover fruitcake. Some regift it. One Web site even advocates blowtorching the stuff. Ed Gildea wants to help save the climate with it.
Gildea is CEO of Massachusetts-based Converted Organics, which takes food waste and converts it into an all-natural fertilizer, using the basic idea of composting, but speeding up the process by months. Converting leftovers, he argues, not only reduces waste but also eliminates harmful chemicals and helps mitigate climate change by reducing emissions.
“We help nature do something that is its natural tendency,” Gildea said. “We set up the ideal environment.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 25.9 million tons of the nation’s food goes in the garbage every year. Most of it ends up rotting in landfills.
The problem is particularly challenging to areas with large urban centers, which face diminished landfill capacity and difficulty siting and operating incinerators. Organic waste alone accounts for 10 to 15 percent of the national solid waste stream.