Good article, less is better!!

This is a great advancement in waste management. It's just unfortunate that there is so much wasted food with all of the hungry people in our country.It certainly makes me think twice about our consumption habits, but it's nice to see that hotels are doing something to help the environment and their local communities.

Green waste should be separate out and not end up in a landfill but rather it should be composted.

Many communities have successful composting programs working with commercial waste haulers. A little Googling can help you finf more info.

Working many years in hotel in banqueting I have seen plenty of food go in to the rubbish can - and I cringed every time. The reason there is so much waste is that American portion size is too big and people don't clean there plate off food - so there is waste. But for the price we are paying we want large portions. This is a double edged sword. That comment was for regular restaurants. On the banqueting side - Chefs make more meals than needed for the number of guests - STOP IT. Normally the staff get to eat any left over meals - a perk. But there is wastage. Of course - we can't donate that food due to liability laws. So what do we do? Go back to the days of small portions and then if we want seconds we can have some more instead of automatically wasting what we don't want? I don't have the solution - but our need for convenience and large portions is wasteful and wrong. I think everyone should be more aware and say to themselves - if I waste this food - someone else goes hungry.

In regards to liability comment above, there is none. You can't donate food that has been set out on the buffet table already, but unused leftover pans of food can be donated. Businesses that donate food cannot be held liable for any sort of food poisoning unless there is "gross negligence." This was passed into federal law via the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.

As for the decomposers, I think a better option is a simple, low-tech composter or worm bin. These decomposers use energy and water and just pass the problem on to the wastewater treatment facilities as is with the case of waste to water systems. A simple compost bin takes a while longer to break the material down, but they don't use any electricity or water and cost a tiny fraction of the cost of a decomposer. If you do it right, they don't stink and you wind up with great soil to use on-site or give to your staff and customers.

two other alternatives really end the waste, not just cut the volume and cost of hauling to landfill (and add to energy cost, as this one does).

traditional -- food waste to animal feed. a lot better than using 1/3 of our global fish catch for food waste.

bioenergy -- either as part of a closed loop hotel system, also consuming sewage and landscape trimmings or collected by a dedicated hauler and taken to a central facility.

Ernie Lowe, Indigo Development www.indigodev.com

I can't help a twinge of concern about the wasted energy these machines seem to condone. The eCorrect system is perhaps better than the others because it produces a fertiliser product but the others just flush it all away.
I managed a conference centre (small one) near Cape Town a couple of years ago. We installed a biodigester to deal with our blackwater and kitchen waste. It also took garden trimmings and farm yard clean-up. It produced methane which was sent back to the kitchen and used for cooking most of the delegates meals. The sludge was dried and used as fertilser and the water out flow went throug a wetland and thence irrigated our vegetable garden.
A perfect closed-loop production system.
There were a lot of really bad jokes to deal with but otherwise the system did a great job.

I forgot to sign the last post. Eric@capstonerenewables.co.za