U.S. EPA survey of operators of anaerobic digestion facilities that accept food waste provides a national picture of total processing capacity, tons processed, and biogas produced.

In 2017, EPA surveyed U.S. operators of anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities that accept food waste to identify the number of facilities in the U.S. and their locations, and to learn about their operations. A report on the findings, Anaerobic Digestion Facilities Processing Food Waste in the United States in 2015, was released by the U.S. EPA Region 3 office in late May (2018). Melissa Pennington of U.S. EPA Region 3 conducted the survey and analyses of the results, and authored the report. This is the first of three annual data collections EPA will make through 2019, and covers data for calendar year 2015. Future reports will summarize data for 2016, 2017, and 2018. This article is based on excerpts from the full report.

By Nora Goldstein, BioCycle.