Going green: Recycling food waste into livestock feed

The company based in Bartow, Florida recycles about 1,000 tonnes of food waste per week, mainly baked goods, and turns it into nearly 800 tonnes of animal feed.

The waste goes into a dehydrator, where a drum spins it under temperatures of about 800 degrees. It produces a sterile, dry powder loaded with proteins and carbohydrates.

The dehydrator used to burn natural gas, which became very expensive after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Jim Stevens said, the company’s president and owner.

Now it burns sawdust, which the company gets from construction companies and furniture manufacturers looking for an outlet for its waste products, he said.

Fuel costs fell from more than $100,000 a month to about $5,000, Stevens said.

The company’s annual sales are about US$8 million and growing.

According to Cary Lightsey, a Lake Wales rancher "The cattle love it….. It does a real good job of putting weight on the cattle.