ORCA Digester at Rand
Vanderbilt Campus Dining & Coca-Cola Bring ORCA Digester to Campus
Nashville, TN, September, 2015 – Organic food waste and overburdened landfills have long been an issue in food service, and developing “zero waste” initiatives is key to stopping landfilling organic waste. The Organic Refuse Conversion Alternative (ORCA) machine can be a significant component to these initiatives. The ORCA offers a method to digest food waste on-site and convert it to nutrient rich water within a twenty-four hour period. Campus Dining along with funds provided by the Coca-Cola Consolidated have installed an ORCA machine at Rand Dining Center.
Coca-Cola is a proud partner of Vanderbilt University and Campus Dining, “we’re excited to support a variety of sustainability projects including bringing the ORCA food digester to campus,” said Coca-Cola senior director of corporate affairs, Alison Patient.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that food waste makes up 15%, or 38 million tons, of the overall trash disposed of annually nationwide in landfills. The ORCA not only eliminates the landfilling but also eliminates the potential for pests around dumpsters and eliminates the need to truck food waste to landfills or remote composting facilities. This means a large reduction in carbon emissions from both landfills and garbage trucks.