The Party for the Animals (PvdD) faction in the Groningen city council has called for the installation of anaerobic digesters across the city to divert food waste from landfills by turning it into clean energy. According to the PvdD, the city needs to do more to increase the production of biogas and help process more organic waste to generate electricity and supply energy to the community. Biogas from old bread and other food waste is a good step to become less dependent on fossil fuels, the faction says.
In addition, converting food waste is better for animals and the environment.
“Bread digesters have many advantages,” council member Janette Bosma was quoted by OOG TV as saying. “They contribute to the circular economy by processing food that is currently discarded. A kilogram of old bread yields no less than 400 liters of biogas that households can utilize.”
Bread digesters are already operating in a number of cities, such as Amersfoort. In one of the city’s community centers, all the cooking is done on biogas derived from stale bread. Anaerobic digestion systems convert organic matter, such as food waste, into biogas (a mixture of mainly carbon dioxide and methane), making the technology suitable for a variety of applications in energy and potentially in the bioproducts and bioprocesses sector. Bread digesters convert waste into enough biogas to cover the needs of eight households.
In addition to the installation of biodigesters, the PvdD has called for measures to stop food waste. One measure suggested by the far-left party is the introduction of a ban on feeding stale bread to ducks and geese.
