It is estimated that grocery stores in the United States throw away about 10% of their food inventory every single week, resulting in more than 133 billion pounds of food being discarded annually. Food waste is one of America’s largest environmental challenges, accounting for roughly one-fifth of the solid waste in landfills nationwide. Food that ends up in the landfill creates incredible amounts of methane and other pollution problems which negatively contribute to global climate change.
But there is a way to take what would have been food waste from the supermarket industry and convert it into renewable energy for plants in the form of carbon-rich fertilizer. From the produce aisle to the meat and seafood departments, organic fertilizer manufacturers can come to the rescue, fueled by what would otherwise have been thrown away.
Upcycling large volumes of would-be food waste into premium, organic fertilizer has many benefits, such as lowering greenhouse gas emissions, providing an effective and ecologically sound alternative to petroleum-based fertilization programs and tremendously reducing the carbon footprint of the grocery-store-to-landfill cycle. The dream of a zero-waste, modern society is finally taking shape, and real-world problems are being solved with bold, innovative solutions. The organic, three-part liquid fertilizers now available represent the apex of sustainability by turning food scraps collected from grocery stores nationwide into pure gold for plants.
The process begins with an industrial food digester equipped with a motorized grinder to pulverize the food scraps into a nutrient-rich slurry. This slurry is enzymatically digested and stored in an enclosed stainless-steel tank, keeping it thoroughly aerated and agitated. The tanks containing meats, fruits, vegetables, seafood bones and other organic foods are stored behind participating supermarkets until they’re collected by a tanker truck and brought to a main processing facility for further refinement. The finished materials are converted to the most nutrient-rich organic fertilizer in the world — with the highest level of sustainability.
This enzymatic process results in multiple ingredients in the finished fertilizer containing a wide range of inputs, including whole fresh seafood, vegetables, fruits, meats and other high-value perishables from the supermarket. By utilizing a wide array of high-value ingredients derived from multiple sources, organic liquid fertilizers can provide all essential macro- and micronutrients plants require, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, manganese, zinc, boron, copper and molybdenum.
Field trials and university studies strongly suggest that organic liquid fertilizers made from enzymatically digested food scraps provide uniform benefits across an array of crop types. These benefits include elevated yields, improved crop quality and added market value — resulting in greater returns on investment while healing our ecosystem.
Everything you would feed your family, can be used to feed plants, saving the world and make it a better place at the same time. Renewable energy is the final frontier and it will solve a long overdue problem.
Maxwell Martin is an independent thinker from Humboldt County, California and the director of business development for Dr. Earth, Inc. (www.drearth.com). He believes that living an organic lifestyle and farming/gardening sustainably with certified organics is good for Mother Earth and good for mankind.