EcoVim – Waste-Food to Compost

Here’s a device that devours uneaten food from restaurants, and, with the input of energy, creates top-grade compost from that waste stream in just a few hours.  Apparently, the Hawaiians have created a cycle in which the farmer delivers the food, and receives back the compost to help him grow his next batch.  Unfortunately, it required the input of energy, which, to me at least, appears to defeat any eco-benefits associated with the rapid processing of the compost. 

There are two basic competitive ideas:

• The first has been around for 8000 years, and involves the natural processing of the waste via the metabolic action of bacteria that produce compost over a period of a few months.  This whole idea is accelerated with today’s methane digesters and similar concepts.

• The second came into view about 100 years ago: attempts to use temperature, pressure, and perhaps chemical catalysts, to extract some of the chemical energy in the waste and turn it into biofuels or electricity via processes like gasification/pyrolysis.

My personal reaction to the EcoVim people is that they’re taking this in the wrong direction, i.e., we want energy coming out of this process, rather than going in.  But, as always, if anyone cares to comment, that would be great.