Food Waste Recycling is a Team Effort
That includes E.J. Harrison truck drivers, Gold Coast Recycling sorting in Ventura, Agromin and the Mountain View Organic Waste Processing Facility in Oxnard developing end products for sustainable use in farms and gardens.
When you properly bag your food waste, place it in your E.J. Harrison & Sons organics cart and close the lid, you have completed an important first step. But your food waste’s journey is only beginning.
Each step helps move food waste away from the landfill and toward more useful environmental outcomes.
The process begins on residential collection routes.
Harrison drivers empty organics carts into their trucks, where bagged food waste joins yard trimmings, plants, cut grass and branches. Once the trucks are full, drivers take the material to Gold Coast Recycling in Ventura. There, the load is emptied onto the floor and sorted. Equipment and workers help separate trash, green waste and bagged food waste.
Once the bagged food waste is separated from the green waste, it is added to a large roll-off container. When the container is full, it is transported to Agromin’s Mountain View Organic Waste Processing Facility in Oxnard.
At the Mountain View Facility,
food waste is emptied into a hopper and moves through a series of machines and processes. Those systems remove nonfood material and compress the remaining food waste into a clean slurry. That material is then stored in tanks. According to the Trash Flash, much of the material is currently shipped to a wastewater plant, where it can ultimately become renewable natural gas and be pumped into a pipeline. It can also be used for fertilizer production and compost enrichment.
This process shows why proper sorting at home matters. Trash, plastic, pet waste, glass, metal and other contaminants do not belong in the organics cart. Food waste should be securely bagged, while yard waste should be placed loose in the cart.
As your local Ventura County Trash Hauler, E.J. Harrison is proud to support a system that helps reduce methane-producing food waste in landfills and turn discarded material into useful green products.
Learn more about food waste recycling at ejharrison.com/food-waste.
Need Additional Capacity?
Businesses needing additional food waste container capacity should contact EJ Harrison to review service options.
