It’s said we waste millions of tonnes every year, costing us billions of dollars.

Food waste is an unfortunate by-product of most every step in the modern food chain, from farm to fork: In our harvesting, processing, distributing, selling, cooking, and eating, we waste a lot of food.

With the goal of reducing if not eliminating the steady stream of food we throw out, one Canadian company is making advanced food recycling technology available to not only individual consumers and households, but also to local municipalities, commercial operations, even school boards – at a discounted price.

According to the 2021 United Nations Food Waste Index, the average Canadian household wastes 79 kilograms of food every year (by way of comparison, in the United States, the annual household food waste is 59 kilograms; in the United Kingdom, it’s 77 kg).

However, according to the Canadian National Zero Waste Council, the amount of food wasted by the average Canadian household is 140 kilograms, almost twice as much as the amount reported by the UN. Both reports agree that, regardless of the total amount, nearly half of all food waste is produced in the home (meaning that one of the first remedies is for us to have better, more sustainable, shopping habits).

Food Cycle Science believes the food waste crisis can also be tackled by people with access to the right technology and science-backed tools. Based in Ottawa, the Canadian-owned company was established in 2011; it now holds several international patents for its product line-up of food recycling devices, and it is taking its products to the global stage.

The company offers indoor food waste recycling solutions for households, communities and commercial entities, having developed the award-winning FoodCycler brand, and the patented Vortech grinding system used in both the Eco 3 and Eco 5 models. FoodCycler and its partner Vitamix introduced the Eco 5, the smaller Eco 3 is the latest FoodCycler offering.

The countertop device looks something like a high-tech electric garbage can; it is sleek and simply-designed, with just one operating button on top. But it easily turns wet food waste and smelly scraps into a fairly dry, odour-free by-product, reducing overall volume by about half in the process.

Food scraps and waste (pretty much anything from veggie and fruit bits to pork and lamb bones – beef bones are too hard, the manufacturer warns – even coffee filters, tea bags and dirty paper towels) can be processed and reduced by the sharp blades in the tiered, rotating metal grinder. Moisture is reduced by internal heating elements during the processing cycle, which can take anywhere from four to nine hours, depending on the type and amount of food waste being processed. The Eco 3 FoodCycler processes up to 3.5 L of food waste per cycle.

The unit uses replaceable carbon filtering to reduce odours; the food scrap bucket that easily slides into the grinding mechanism should be cleaned regularly and eventually replaced as well.

According to the company, running a cycle takes about one kWh (the Eco3 model is a 500 W max device) or pennies per use, not that much different than charging a laptop for the same amount of time.

The result of that grinding, heating, and electronic food cycling sees wet food waste turned into a dry, fine particulate substance. It looks and feels almost like soil, and it can be re-used in the garden as an additive, if desired or appropriate. FoodCycler calls it ‘a soil amendment’; the recycled by-product is not really compost as the heating and drying have removed enzymes and bacteria from the food waste. But the resultant powdery material can be mixed with garden or potting soil, and the company does sell bacteria tablets to re-inject the processed food waste by-product with beneficial bacteria and probiotics.

Of course, individual results and experiences will vary based on actual food eating and disposal habits. A family of four might be running the countertop Eco 3 model every day of the week, while a live-alone single might only use it once in that week. Homeowners with a big yard and garden space may find other composting methods more appropriate, while folks living in condominiums may find existing green bin recycling programs satisfactory for their needs.

But in addition to selling FoodCyclers directly to the consumer, the company has partnered with local municipalities and organizations right across Canada to provide the devices at a discounted price as a way both to kickstart and to evaluate community-wide recycling efforts, efforts often supported by “green subsidies” from provincial or federal agencies.

For example, as part of Ontario’s Food and Organic Waste Policy, municipalities are required to “provide for the resource recovery of food and organic waste means through such as home composting, community composting and local event days”.

So FoodCycler has established partnerships with more than 70 municipalities in eight provinces and territories to pilot the use of its food recycling technology. There are some 4,500 households across the country that are in or have completed such programs.

The Town of Bancroft, for example, partnered with FoodCycler and Impact Canada Investments to offer the technology to its residents at a subsidized rate.  At launch, the program had 30 available spots and FoodCycler units, discounted by more 50 per cent. A pilot in Clarence-Rockland engaged some 500 households in a similar 12-week project. Other Ontario communities like East Hawkesbury, South Glengarry and South Stormont have opted in a FoodCycler pilot program.

In Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, some 200 units were made available, and the company recently announced expansion in Taiwan, as well.

FoodCycler cites high “will continue to use” and “would recommend device to others” ratings from its pilot programs, and it estimates each participating household, with three to four residents each, diverts as much 300 kilograms of food waste away from landfills each year. Since 2011, FoodCycler calculates that it’s helped divert over 29 million pounds of food waste from landfills across North America, while helping users economize on garbage pick-up costs, manage energy costs, reduce the amount of food we waste and amount of stuff we send to already overcrowded landfills.

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