Adding Value to Processing Wastes

One of the major economic issues facing agri-food processors is how to deal with their waste streams. Not only do they not get any money from their waste stream, they have to pay to dispose of it. If we can find a better use for the waste stream, they save the disposal fee and they also can perhaps get some money back from the waste stream. And if we can reduce the amount of material that ends up in the landfill site or municipal sewage, there is also an environmental benefit,” says Dr. Jimmy Yao, the program manager of AESA’s Processing Based Program.

To get a better handle on the challenges and opportunities for adding value to agri-food process wastes, the Processing Based Program funded a study by Lethbridge-based Trimark Engineering Ltd. Yao says, “The study’s main purpose was to help to identify the scope, the amount of waste generated, and the amount diverted for other uses, and also to identify the barriers that prevent diversion into other uses.”

Trimark surveyed small, medium and large agri-food processors within a 100-km radius of the centre of Edmonton on the amount and type of wastes they generate and how they manage those wastes. It also surveyed potential users of these wastes on the types of waste they will accept, the amounts they require and their collection methods.

Agri-food wastes contain valuable components, like nutrients and chemical compounds, which can be used in the manufacture of such diverse products as animal feeds, industrial chemicals, compost and medicines. “If you put the waste to a higher usage, you are going to save money and be able to re-use or recycle those materials. Those are good things for the environment, “for the economy, for the processors and for the users,” says Trimark’s Bill Moses, who led the study.

However the study identified some significant barriers to diverting wastes to other uses. Moses notes, “Probably the biggest problem is that [most agri-food processors] are small generators of waste. For a garbage collector to come once a week is no problem, but to come and collect a small quantity of waste to be used for a different process is expensive… Another barrier is that the users of the wastes typically want a definable product to use and they want it at a certain rate. It’s hard for [processors generating small amounts of waste] to be consistent in that. Waste storage and handling is also a problem. Do you store it at the generator or at the user, and who pays for it? And that leads to the other big problem: financial issues. People aren’t motivated to do this unless there is some financial reward.”

But the barriers are not insurmountable. Moses says, “The most important conclusion we found is that [diverting wastes] can provide significant benefits. The diversion of wastes works here, now, in a number of industries. Large generators of waste are doing quite a good job in diverting streams of their residuals away from waste and into something recyclable or reusable. What we need to do is find a way to get small and medium generators, who all together do make a large quantity of waste, more involved.”

One of the report’s main recommendations is for government leadership and support for waste diversion systems. Moses explains, “The financial returns for the users of the waste and the producers of the waste are small on a case-by-case basis, so there’s not a high financial incentive for them to do it. However, they can make a little bit of money at it, so it’s probably something that they will do if leadership and support are provided.”

He adds, “A whole host of things probably fit in with that [support]. One of them is providing information that people need on what their options are, what it will cost them, what the benefits are likely to be, where can they find users, and where the users can find the generators of the waste. And then people need some support with putting their system into place.”

Along with providing valuable information on agri-food process wastes and waste handling, the study has already spurred interest in potential business opportunities for collecting and adding value to these wastes. Yao says, “I think that is a very positive result for the study!”