title: Source segregation of food waste in office areas: Factors affecting waste generation rates and quality.
abstract: Existing legislation mandates that the amount of waste being recycled should be increased. Among others, in its Resource Strategy Plan, the Danish Government decided that at least 60% of food waste generated by the service sector, including in office areas, should be source-sorted and collected separately by 2018. To assess the achievability of these targets, source-sorted food waste and residual waste from office areas was collected and weighed on a daily basis during 133 working days. Waste composition analyses were conducted every week to investigate the efficiency of the source-sorting campaign and the purity of the source-sorted food waste. The moisture content of source-sorted food waste and residual waste fractions, and potential methane production from source-sorted food waste, was also investigated. Food waste generation equated to 23 ± 5 kg/employee/year, of which 20 ± 5 kg/employee/year was source-sorted, with a considerably high purity of 99%. Residual waste amounted to 10 ± 5 kg/employee/year and consisted mainly of paper (29 ± 13%), plastic (23 ± 9%) and missorted food waste (24 ± 16%). The moisture content of source-sorted food waste was significantly higher (8%) than missorted food waste, and the methane potential of source-sorted food waste was 463 ± 42 mL CH4/g VS. These results show that food waste in office areas offers promising potential for relatively easily collectable and pure source-sorted food waste, suggesting that recycling targets for food waste could be achieved with reasonable logistical ease in office areas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. Electronic address: vine@env.dtu.dk.
authors.forename: Maklawe Essonanawe
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Edjabou
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boldrin
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheutz
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thomas Fruergaard
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Astrup
mesh_terms: D005735:Garbage; D059027:Recycling; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D018505:Waste Management; D017132:Workplace
chemical_list: D062611:Solid Waste
keywords: Biochemical methane potential; Impurity; Residual waste; Sorting efficiency; Waste composition; Waste sorting bins