The RE-WISE model

RE-WISE introduces an innovative controlled practice for the management of the organic food waste that is daily produced by urban communities. Each family adopting a Food Waste Disposer, the familiar and user-friendly household appliance that has now been rendered �intelligent�, is able to select the food waste and to collect and convey it through the sewage to the wastewater treatment plant. At the plant the organic matter is digested in the existing anaerobic digester and the biogas obtained is used to produce energy. The digestate resulting from the anaerobic digestion is appropriately used as fertilizer.

These key elements together enable the establishment of a win-win Business Scheme in which:

  • citizens (or small industrial sites) can be rewarded through monetary incentives for instal lat ion of disposers and/or through monetary bonuses to be directly calculated on the base of the organic food waste they ef fect ively dispose through the sewerage system, thus upon their responsible contribution to the increased production of Green Energy from biogas;
  • municipalities can profit from reductions in costs associated to i) savings in transportation of the biodegradable fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (transportation routes frequencies being reduced from e.g. twice-weekly to e.g. biweekly), and ii) savings in Municipal Solid Waste Management practices such as kerbside collection or source-separated collection as far as the biodegradable fraction of Municipal Solid Waste is concerned;
  • service providers in wastewater management can profit from financial incomes associated to the increased biogas volumes to be used as Renewable Energy Source.

 

As such, the proposed RE-WISE model aims at gathering Green Energy from kitchen residues, thereby overcoming at the same time the need for separate source collection of organic food waste, avoiding problems such as the generation of odours, leachate and the attraction of animals such as rodents due to the very high decomposition rate of this kind of residue (particularly during hot periods).