Hyatt cuts food waste with EnviroPure

January 30, 2012, Chicago – Champion Industries recently introduced a complete series of food waste decomposition equipment to eliminate food waste at the source.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Municipal Solid Waste Data, 70 billion pounds of food is wasted each year. Ninety-seven per cent goes into landfills and the waste not only produces damaging methane gas in addition to pick-up and hauling emissions, but also attracts pests, vermin and insects. When it comes to foodservice, food waste poses workplace safety concerns and causes expensive operational and productivity issues.

EnviroPure – a hyper-accelerated food waste decomposition system – is designed to solve those problems, breaking down up to 800 pounds of food waste a day through physical and biological processes. EnviroPure’s on-site system produces a gray water bi-product safe for sewer disposal with no odours or sludge build-up and no system clean-outs required.

The EnviroPure System has already helped businesses across the United States meet environmental standards, including the Hyatt Hotel at McCormick Place in Chicago.

The existing manually operated composting system at the Hyatt McCormick Place presented workplace and operational challenges on several fronts and was not handling the proteins in the waste stream properly.

“The composting systems we were using at the time required additional separation of meat proteins from the food waste which was labour intensive, inefficient and costly,” said Roger Martin, director of engineering at Hyatt McCormick Place.

EnviroPure was brought in to provide an alternative to the manual composting system because it could handle the entire food waste stream without any additional separation.

“We really liked the fact that the EnviroPure system could handle all types of food waste and the fact that it fit easily into our operational flow,” explained Martin.

EnviroPure recommended an EPD-2200 “dry” system capable of handling up to 1.3 metric tons per day. The system provides a 1,000:1 ration of compression of the food waste by weight and reduces compost as a bi-product of the process.

“We were amazed at how little compost was left after the system processed the food waste. We took about 600 lbs. of mulch out of the system after 8 months and processing almost ½ million pounds of food waste,” said Martin.

The EnviroPure system easily installed into existing dock space outside the garbage room at the Hyatt, with the loading door on the system custom configured to provide easy loading without the need for lifting of the heavy food waste in bins and totes.

Automatic cycling and processing of food waste occurs as it is added with continued batch and feed modes. An auto shut-off timer is included for remote grinder motor and water supply and an auto-disconnect system shuts off the system in the event that the hatch door opens.

EnviroPure handles virtually any kind of food waste including: vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, bones, shells and pits. Just like composting, EnviroPure uses natural biological decomposition processes that are accelerated through a combined action of the system itself and the use of BioMix, an all-natural, non-toxic, biodegradable additive. Food waste is broken down into water and BioMix facilitates the biological conversion by grinding all remaining materials into CO2, water and other organic materials. An insulated chamber retains heat to accelerate the breakdown.

As a result of the EnviroPure system, the Hyatt noticed an immediate and significant reduction in their overall disposal costs through the removal of the heavy food waste component from their waste stream. Martin estimates that the Hyatt has “realized monthly savings of between $1,500 to $2,000 and expects to achieve overall annual savings of approximately to $20,000 representing a 15 per cent reduction in hauling and disposal costs year-over-year.”