Following in the footsteps of FirstEnergy Stadium, the Cleveland Indians, and JACK Cleveland Casino, the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland has implemented a large-scale food waste recycling system known as Grind2Energy鈥攂ecoming the first and only convention center in the country to do so.
The concept is relatively simple: team members from on-site caterer Levy Restaurants load food waste and scraps into a disposal unit, which grinds up the food into a semi-liquid mixture that is stored in a holding tank. Collinwood-based Quasar Energy Group then transports the material to its anaerobic digesters, which extract methane to convert the waste into renewable energy (such as electricity, natural gas, or nutrient-rich fertilizer).
鈥淭his process not only turns the food into an energy source, but eliminates waste and smell,鈥� explains Dave Johnson, the center鈥檚 Director of Public Relations and Marketing.
And it鈥檚 making an impact鈥攊n 2017, the Grind2Energy system ground 82,000 pounds of food waste and produced enough natural gas to heat 22 homes, electricity to power 15 homes, and more than 5,700 pounds of fertilizer while eliminating greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 65,653 automobile miles.
At a venue like the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, numbers like this matter. After all, the facility produced two tons of food waste for the Republican National Convention alone, and 222 events were held in 2017鈥攁ttracting 222,656 hungry visitors. Plus, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, between 30 and 40 percent of our nation鈥檚 food supply is wasted in general.
With that in mind, that鈥檚 not all the LEED Gold-certified convention center is doing to reduce its culinary footprint. The center made headlines last year for its on-site urban farm, which serves double-duty producing foods for the catering department and recycling kitchen scraps. A flock of 29 chickens satisfies a quarter of the facility鈥檚 shelled egg use, and raised beds produce a bounty of greens, herbs, and vegetables. The farm鈥檚 13 beehives generate 2,000-plus pounds of honey annually, and a trio of Mangalista heritage breed pigs nosh about 5,500 pounds of food that would otherwise be discarded.
鈥淔ood waste doesn鈥檛 go into the trash,鈥� explains General Manager and Executive Chef Matt Del Regno. 鈥淎nd what we don鈥檛 feed to the pigs or can鈥檛 repurpose in another way goes into the Grind2Energy system.鈥�
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