About 3,600 tons of food waste is discarded every day in Hong Kong. Ergotek, a start-up company, is committed to researching the possibility of food chain recycling, and has developed the FEEDSPRESSO food waste conversion device, which collects commercial food waste from nearby food factories and uses machines to grind, stir and puff it. And 4 programs of drying, to convert food waste such as peels, vegetables and fish bones into fish food for local fisheries.
Gu Xiangxiang, CEO of Ergotek, pointed out that the team's goal is to bring the installation to the Hong Kong community. Since the food waste conversion installation takes up less space, it can be used in large housing estates or commercial buildings, but the public's acceptance still needs to be considered.
Ku also said that there are still deficiencies in waste sorting policies and education, and food waste collection from businesses is also difficult to respond, which has become a major challenge in food waste disposal.
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The FEEDSPRESSO food waste conversion device is assembled in a 20-foot container. The current prototype is located in Sheung Shui Kwu Tung. There are 4 main machines in the container house. and bean dregs and other food waste into fish food.
After the team collected the food waste, it was put into a grinder for grinding into crumbs, and the necessary corn flour and black soldier fly larvae were added as a nutrient source for feed.
Finally, through the steps of puffing and drying, the mixture is extruded into pelletized feed, and the pellets are dehydrated to make floatable feed.
The maximum daily processing cost of 8 metric tons of food waste is about 300 yuan per ton
FEEDSPRESSO also has a large number of sensors to reflect the temperature and humidity in the container, which is convenient to control the odor problem caused by food waste.
The team estimates that FEEDSPRESSO will cost about 300 yuan per ton of food waste to process. If the device operates 24 hours a day, it can process up to 8 metric tons of food waste and reduce carbon emissions by 20 metric tons.
The processing facilities only need 200 square feet of space to operate, which can be used flexibly in large housing estates, commercial buildings and different areas.
FEEDSPRESSO project manager Huang Yingyin pointed out that in order to reduce the carbon emissions from transportation, the main commercial food waste is currently collected nearby. If there is a large amount of food waste collected, the mixing amount of corn flour can be reduced, in other words, the conversion cost of food waste can be reduced.
The team demonstrated the process of food waste conversion to reporters. After about 120 minutes of processing, 10 kg of food waste can be added to powder to produce about 40 kg of fish food.
The fish food converted from food waste is currently mainly used for its own fishing ponds or for supplying nearby fishing ponds. It is hoped that through low-cost animal food, the local aquaculture industry will be promoted.
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Collecting food waste is harder than you think
Gu Xiangqian said that the process of converting food waste is not complicated, but collecting food waste is more difficult than expected. "Those food waste should be discarded food, but we have to actively ask businesses to provide what they don't want, and they will Considering economic factors, it may not be willing to share with us, or ask us to collect a certain amount of food waste at a time.”
At present, the source of food waste is still not stable. Gu added that at this stage, household food waste cannot be handled. Because Hong Kong people are not yet mature in recycling awareness and have not properly sorted the source, household food waste is often mixed with plastics, etc., and cannot be turned into food waste.
He went on to say that citizens are too accustomed to dumping their rubbish into a bag and hand it over to a garbage station for disposal, and after years of education in garbage classification, they still remain in aluminum cans, plastic bottles and waste paper, causing citizens to ignore source sorting.
"The government still needs to put more effort into environmental protection education and source classification. The waste levy can indeed be pushed, but in addition to punishment, more consideration should be given to how to encourage citizens and businesses to respond to environmental protection."
The entry of container houses into the community is subject to public acceptance
Gu hopes to bring FEEDSPRESSO into the Hong Kong community. In the design, the container is used as the carrier of the device. The purpose is to decentralize and increase flexibility. It can be operated anywhere at low cost, and citizens can experience the results of recycling. It is also a kind of education.
He continued that although it is technically feasible, it still needs to take into account the community's acceptance of waste treatment and food waste conversion, so in the future, it will start to popularize education and packaging.
In addition, the prototype still has a lot of room for improvement, including conversion speed and automation, and more efforts are still needed in the future.
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