Closing the Loop: When Wastewater Treatment Becomes Resource Recovery

So by now, you’ve probably seen food scraps being collected at various points across NYC…but have you ever wondered…where do all those scraps go?! 🤔

It just so happens that some of those scraps eventually arrive right at our doorstep…

Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility. If you don’t love those digester eggs now, you will after reading this.

When you drop off food scraps at your local green market, or put them into your DSNY brown bin, you’re helping to reduce the amount of organic waste that is sent to landfills.

Left: Organics collection bins at an NYC green market. Right: A pile of food scraps (or as we like to say: ENERGY).

Why is that important? Organic waste that makes its way to landfills will decompose and produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that is 26–32 times more powerful than CO2.

So, in short: Wasted Food = Wasted Energy. Yup. Let that sink in for a bit.

But, what if we could somehow take advantage of all that food scrap energy instead of sending it to a landfill where it will pollute our environment ? 🤯 🧐

Excellent question. 😁 🤓

Before we can take advantage of the energy in those food scraps, they need to be prepped in a specific way. That’s where our partner Waste Management comes in.

Waste Management’s CORe® facility in Brooklyn, a.k.a. “where the magic happens.”

Left: This machine separates food scraps from “contaminating” materials, like plastic. Right: Contaminating materials. So. Much. Plastic.

Some of those food scraps will be hauled to Waste Management’s CORe® facility in Brooklyn. There, your banana peels, egg shells, and uneaten brussel sprouts are separated from any contaminating material (basically, anything that’s not food scraps). Once they’re isolated, they’re then made into a badass energy product called EBS®.

Giant cylindrical things that hold all that EBS®.

Drumroll please…!

This is EBS®.

EBS® is a homogenous food based energy product that is designed to have a consistency similar to a nice, thick, nutritious smoothie. Trust us, it smells fantastic. 🤢 🤮

But don’t let that sweet smell and delicious appearance fool you. This stuff is a game changer.

From Waste Management, the EBS® is transported 2 miles down the road to… our Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility! Yaaaaasssssss!

Hookin’ up the EBS® at Newtown Creek.

Left: The EBS® goes into a receiving tank. Right: That shiny receiving tank is located right next to our world famous digester eggs.

EBS® is a consistent enough product that we can treat it exactly like the solid portion of our incoming wastewater flow: sludge 💩.

One more reason to love Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility!

The sludge 💩 and EBS® are mixed together and then pumped into our digester eggs. They’ll stay there for about 30 days, mixing and churning while anaerobic microorganisms convert them to biogas (methane) and carbon dioxide.

And we’ve partnered with National Grid to convert the biogas into clean, renewable heat! This model of local Resource Recovery is a building block for sustainable, resilient communities 🙌 💪. By capturing our byproducts and recovering their value, we are:

⬇️ reducing GHG emissions,
⬆️ creating renewable energy in our backyard, and
⬇️ reducing long-haul trucking.

Resource recovery makes the most of our treatment plants, transforming what was considered waste to resources. We can all help by properly separating our organics for recovery, appreciating the value of treatment plants in our neighborhoods, and spreading the word about this program!