Where Does Uneaten Food Go?

WOODBINE – In the industrialized world, and especially in the United States, many are grappling with obesity with nearly 100 million of the nation’s population classified as overweight or obese, constituting 70 percent of the population.  
Paradoxically, many times hidden in plain view of neighbors, friends and relatives, significant segments of the population, including children, are what sociologists term “food insecure,” that is they do not know if they will have the next meal.
This group is estimated at about 13 percent of the country’s population. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture estimates overall food waste in the nation at between 30-40 percent of the total food supply, equivalent to 133 billion pounds worth $161 billion.
If fortunate, the hungry have the support of the federal government’s SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), formerly known as food stamps, to help them buy food.
If not so fortunate, many Americans turn to food pantries, soup kitchens or other charitable organizations to have access to a hot meal. Those organizations increasingly are organizing into formal networks, using business models to deliver nutritious and fresh food and deploying technology such as phone apps or web-based ride-sharing services to connect hungry people with food that would go to waste absent these ties. 
In Cape May County, most food waste, a type of solid waste, is sent to the only sanitary landfill the county maintains located in Woodbine. 
According to John Conturo, an engineer with over 30 years of experience in solid waste and a program manager at the county’s Municipal Utilities Authority, “Much of the food waste generated in Cape May County is disposed of at our landfill in Woodbine. All organic material, such as food waste, that is buried in a landfill undergoes decomposition. 
“It is the decomposition of the organic compounds in the refuse that creates the methane in landfill gas (LFG). LFG contains approximately 50 percent methane gas which can be used as an alternative fuel source in many applications.”
Conturo further explained that gas management systems at landfills have evolved over the past few decades into comprehensive engineered systems. They contain, collect, treat and transport the LFG to a variety of different types of facilities that utilize the gas in beneficial ways. Containment of the LFG in a landfill is accomplished by placing impermeable soil layers or synthetic membrane liners over areas of the landfill that are no longer accepting refuse.
“These soil layers and geomembrane liners are known as landfill caps. Both horizontal and vertical collection pipes are installed within the waste, below the caps, and a vacuum system is used to pull the LFG out of the landfill.
“Conveyance piping is used to transport the fuel to its final destination. The management of a state-of-the-art LFG collection, treatment and conveyance system is expensive to maintain.
“The overall success of the system relies heavily on the quality of the LFG being collected. The higher the percentage of methane, the more beneficial the LFG. Larger amounts of food waste produce larger amounts of high-quality methane that can be used for beneficial use,” explained Conturo.
At the Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority Sanitary Landfill, LFG has been collected and utilized as a renewable fuel to supplement natural gas needed to run the boilers at the Woodbine Developmental Center for 20 years, Conturo noted.
“In 2005, the CMCMUA installed three electrical generators, producing a total of 450 kW per hour of electricity which provided the electrical needs of the landfill facility,” he added.
The CMCMUA has also installed siloxane and sulfur removal systems to the landfill gas collection system. Siloxanes and sulfur, typical contents in LFG, can cause excessive wear on mechanical parts of electrical generating engines and boilers. The removal systems that were installed in the gas collection system help preserve the mechanical components of the boilers and electrical generating engines.
In 2013, the CMCMUA made a large investment in the design, construction and operation of an electrical generating plant that is capable of producing two megawatts of electrical energy per hour. These generators run solely off of the LFG produced within the landfill.
More recently, the CMCMUA increased the vacuum capabilities of the gas collection system by installing two 125 HP blowers. The sale-of-the-art LFG to the Woodbine Developmental Center and the sale of any excess electricity generated at the Sanitary Landfill help offset operational costs of the facility, said Conturo.
Hog Farm
Before the age of sophisticated landfills, the county’s livestock farms made significant use of food overage and waste.  
Lynn Germanio is the fourth generation of her family to own and operate such a farm which she did for decades.
“My son, Frank, is now the fifth generation and his 13-year-old, who already is expected to help, will be the sixth generation. It’s a nice life, you work right where you live, but obviously it’s work that entails being on the job all the time. Frank has a full-time occupation outside the farm so it’s long hours, but we are all determined to keep operations going.”
Germanio recalled that in the not-so-distant past, the various livestock farms would make the rounds of hospitals, prisons, schools, restaurants, nursing homes and other organizations which would have large food surpluses on a daily basis to pick up and feed their hogs.
“We even sometimes visited the fishing docks for their overages which gave the hogs a fishy flavor. Any hog which has been fed food surplus will taste much better than one that has been fed grain. But those days are pretty much gone.
“People will now pay for you to pick up their food waste, even calling from as far away as North Jersey, but that simply is not a practical solution. You can tell though if they’re calling from there, there’s not much interest among the livestock people to pick up,” Germanio said.
Food Pantries
County charitable organizations and churches have found creative ways to connect those in need with those with plenty.
Family Promise of Cape May County uses its network of church connections to provide lodging for those who have extended periods of no place to live either through losing their jobs, illness and medical bills, or domestic strife. Church volunteer members provide meals for these families and their children.
Pastor Terry Lothian, St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Ocean City, described another approach to helping the hungry: “One of the large pizza stores on the Boardwalk, at the end of the season, gives us all their leftover ingredients, a quite substantial amount of food.
“We use them for our ‘God’s Kitchen’ feeding program here at St. Peter’s, with branches in Cape May and ACUP in Atlantic City. Wawa, each week, gives us products too old to sell and we use them also in these feeding programs.”
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.