Anaergia, BDC, Generate Capital, and Vanguard Renewables believe they’re poised to expand organics recycling. ESG trends, disposal tip fees, and state or local policies are all key drivers.
By Cole Rosengren, Senior Editor, Waste Dive
Using anaerobic digesters to process food scraps and create energy is a well-seasoned concept used at scale throughout the world, especially in European countries, but it’s still less common in the United States. Some of the sector’s leading operators are betting that’s about to change.
According to the latest U.S. EPA survey data, the country has an estimated 200 digesters specifically accepting food waste across dozens of states. This included standalone and farm-based sites as well as facilities co-digesting food scraps at wastewater treatment plants. But the pace of development has been slow. Prior operational issues have led to multiple project closures and have created an opinion among some on the MSW (municipal solid waste) side that the concept isn’t financially viable. At the same time, a combination of policy drivers; corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pressures; rising disposal tip fees in some regions, and other factors have created a strong tailwind for organics recycling.
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“We look at organics as the next solid waste commodity,” said Debra Darby, manager of organics sustainability solutions at Tetra Tech, during a recent WasteExpo session. “Organics management is a new thinking of solid waste as a resource.”
While composting is still the more common path for traditional solid waste service providers looking to build their own organics infrastructure, and is also poised for notable expansion, anaerobic digestion (AD) is seeing a lot of new investment. After years of ups and downs for the sector, four companies frequently come up as among the top ones to follow at scale – Anaergia, Bioenergy DevCo (BDC), Generate Capital, and Vanguard Renewables.
“The strongest have survived,” said BDC CEO Shawn Kreloff in a recent interview.
