Sour milk, rancid meat, stale bread, rotten fruit - whereas most groceries are forced to send expired food to the landfill, Kroger is turning this organic waste into energy. The grocery chain recently installed an anaerobic conversion system that will help power a 650,000-square-foot distribution center in Compton, CA. The renewable energy will offset more than 20% of the building's energy demand annually, and 55,000 tons of organic waste that cannot be sold or donated are diverted from the landfill. collected gas powers several microturbines and boilers, which provide heat and steam for an adjacent creamery. Excess liquids are purified and released into the sewer while leftover mulch is redis- tributed on farms as a fertilizer. By diverting the equivalent of 150 tons of food waste per day, area truck trips are reduced by more than 500,000 miles each year.
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