Orca
Food service businesses are increasingly looking to divert their food waste from landfills through composting and other forms of food waste recycling.Most businesses employing food waste recycling have to have their food waste hauled away to a commercial composting facility, but a new machine is now allowing businesses to recycle their food waste on-site.
The Orca Green is a composting machine that transforms food waste into an environmentally safe liquid effluent.
The Orca can be set up in the kitchen of a restaurant or catering business. It uses microorganisms to decompose food waste over the course of a 24 hour period. It is capable of decomposing up to 2,400 pounds of food per day.
How it works: Food waste is dumped into the machine and microorganisms breakdown the organic waste into water that runs into the sewer. There is a misting of water and churning for part of every hour, but the majority of the time, the machine sits idle, not using any electricity, and allowing the microorganisms to break down the food waste.
What it accepts: The Orca is capable of accepting all food waste (including meats and dairy) as well as compostable food ware such as bagasse plates, compostable cutlery, and biodegradable food packaging.
Cost: Orca units range in cost from $23,000 - $60,000 depending on the size and capacity of the unit.
Where is the Orca in use today? There are >7,000 Orca Green machines in use world wide, but only 12 in the United States (as of 6/27/2010). Orca Green machines are in use today at Morgan Stanley in New York, Whole Foods in Atlanta, Emory University in Atlanta, Butler's Pantry in Missouri, and on Royal Caribbean cruise ships. Kahn's Catering in Indiana is using the Orca Green today and is turning >800lbs of food waste into the water-like liquid effluent that the Orca outputs. As a result, Kahn's is estimating that they will save $6,000 - $9,000 per year in waste hauling fees as they will reduce their total waste hauled by more than 300 tons.
Applications of the Liquid Effluent: The Orca team states that various uses of the discharged liquid are under investigation, including: for irrigation, as a compost tea, as non-potable plumbing water, and eventually as potable water.
Who makes the Orca: The Orca Green is manufactured by Green Smart Food Services (GSMS). GSMS was founded in 2008 and quickly evolved to focus on the sale and distribution of the Orca. The team is now composed of more than 10 people selling Orca Green machines across the world. UPDATE: GSMS are actually the US based marketing and distribution organization for the Orca in the United States. The machine is actually imported from South Korea by an outfit called Totally Green, which was recently purchased by a company called Naturally Iowa.
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The ORCA is not manufactured by GSFS - they are a domestic marketing and distribution team. The machine has been imported from South Korea by an outfit called Totally Green, which was recently purchased by a company called Naturally Iowa. I have read somewhere that Totally Green has begun manufacture here in the States, but haven't been able to verify it. It's all very mysterious if you ask me -- except the machine itself, which actually, amazingly, appears to work as advertised.
Hey number2 - Thanks for the comment. I'll edit the post accordingly.
Sounds like you've seen an Orca in action before! If so, awesome, and I'd definitely be curious to hear any thoughts or learnings you have after seeing one live.
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