City of Riverside Receives $10 Million Grant to Reduce Food Waste, Emissions
Published: 12/21/2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Dec. 21, 2023
Contact:
Phil Pitchford
Public Information Officer
951-826-5975
City of Riverside Receives $10 Million Grant to Reduce Food Waste, Emissions
Funding from CalRecycle announced this week for project at water quality control plant
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A City of Riverside effort to reduce greenhouse gases and divert as much as 200,000 tons of food waste from area landfills during the next decade has received a $10 million grant from the state.
The funding, announced this week by the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), will assist the City of Riverside in improving an anaerobic co-digestion project at the Riverside Water Quality Control Plant near Jurupa Avenue and Van Buren Boulevard.
The project will significantly expand the facility’s ability to receive food waste that is processed with wastewater sludge to create biogas that can be turned into renewable natural gas and sold. The project is expected to result in a reduction of 81,000 MTCO2e of greenhouse gas emissions over 10 years.
The project also will keep food waste from ending up in the Badlands landfill near Moreno Valley or the Lamb Canyon landfill near Beaumont. The state estimates that 200,000 tons of material will be diverted from the landfills during a 10-year period, which also will reduce methane emissions from the landfills, improving air quality.
The City’s Public Works Department has a long history of using anaerobic digestion, in which bacteria digest residual solids and create methane gas as a byproduct. This gas has been mixed with natural gas to create energy that is used in various processes throughout the treatment plant.
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