Incorporating Depackaging Into Composting Operation

Missouri Organics Recycling has been composting food waste since 2005. It recently invested in a depackaging system to manage contamination and expand the range of materials accepted.
Kevin Anderson and Stan Slaughter
Depackaging And Digestion Demo In California
Smicon depackaging hopper (left), mobile, skid-mounted digesters (right)

A multiyear food waste-to-energy demonstration project in Goleta, California has been evaluating a source separated organics (SSO) food waste depackaging system followed by anaerobic digestion (AD) of the slurried organics.
•• JUST FOR ADDING TAGS
Food Waste Depackaging Systems
Packaging output from a Dupps-Mavitec food waste processing unit.

Newer models separate packaging with the least amount of applied force necessary to avoid splintering of the packaging. Depackager options are described.
Craig Coker
BioCycle July 2019
Commentary: Dear Plastics Industry — We Are Headed For A Divorce
Kate Bailey

Kate Bailey
BioCycle May/June 2019
Facilitating Food Waste Digestion
Dry fermentation digester at Blue Line Transfer processes about 11,000 tons/year of residential and commercial food waste and green waste.

Increasing volumes of commercial food waste, much of it contaminated or packaged, led digestion facility in South San Francisco to install a depackaging unit.
Nora Goldstein
BioCycle May 2018
Massachusetts Pioneers Food Waste Separators

Installation of food waste depackaging facilities across the state results in fewer commercial organics ban exemptions for packaged food generators.
Robert Spencer and Morgan Casella
BioCycle January 2018
Depackaging At Solid Waste Transfer Station
Storage area for packaged dry foods such as bread and cereal, to be loaded into the Scott Turbo Separator, and recovered for animal feed. An entire pallet of packaged food, inside a large cardboard box, can be tipped into the hopper for processing.

A Massachusetts trash hauling and recycling company invested in a mechanical separation system for food waste, opening up outlets for the processed material.
Bob Spencer and Morgan Casella
BioCycle May 2017
Depackaging Feedstocks For Anaerobic Digestion
Biogas Energy Partners accepts packaged food waste from food processors, retailers and institutions. A depackaging unit installed in July is designed to process 150 tons/day.

Mechanical and hydraulic techniques are used to break open packaged feedstocks and separate them from the organic material.
Peter Gorrie
BioCycle September 2015
Depackaging Feedstocks For AD And Composting
A1 Organics purchased the Ecoverse Tiger HS640 Food Depackager, which has an 8 cubic yard stainless steel hopper that can be fed with a loader (above). Material is pulled into the vertical mill by augers in the bottom of the hopper; bolt-on paddles, spinning at 1,000 RPMs, remove organics from their packaging. Examples of feedstocks processed include cardboard-packaged dried dog food (in loader bucket above), expired dairy products (bottom left) and gallon jugs of iced tea (bottom right).

Digester preprocessing system to be installed by A1 Organics at the Heartland Biogas anaerobic digester in Weld County, Colorado, includes two types of depackaging units.
Nora Goldstein

Napoleon, Ohio: AD Plant Adds Depackaging Capacity

BioCycle December 2014