Household waste targeted by Food Cycle Science

Posted on May 1, 2025 by admin

By Heather Cameron
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Maddy From, Municipal Partnerships Representative at Food Cycle Science gave a presentation about the organization during a recent at Town of Raymond Council meeting.

From explained that Food Cycle Science is a Canadian company that is based out of Ottawa and is 100 per cent focused on food waste diversion solutions. The company, From stated, is able to maintain this focus by using innovative technology called the FoodCycler.

 “Our in-home food recycler is sold directly to consumers, businesses, we sell to classrooms through partnerships with not-for-profit organizations, and then we sell to municipalities through our Food Cycle Municipal Solutions Division,” said From.

From explained that Food Cycle Science is currently working with more than 150 Canadian municipalities across nine provinces and two territories and can also be found in rural and remote areas all the way to highly populated cities including in Alberta’s Drayton Valley, Flagstaff County, and Lacombe County.

“The communities that partner with us have the same thing in common, they face challenges with waste management or landfill capacity, and they understand that food waste going through the landfills is bad for the environment, so they decide to make a change,” said From.

The problem with food waste, From explained is that it’s avoidable, and it accounts for a large portion of household waste, typically making up the majority. It is also made up of liquid, From stated, which is heavy and increases in the winter. 

“All of these factors make it so that food waste is a problem that actually has a strong municipal impact,” said From. “One of the impacts to municipalities is that since food waste makes up such a large portion of the waste stream, it causes landfills to fill up quickly. Operating landfill is very costly for a municipality, so we want to try and extend the lifespan of that for as long as possible. Then, the environmental impact is that organic waste and landfills produces the greenhouse gas and methane is 25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. To put that into perspective, if we take one ton of food waste, that is a waste stream. That’s the equivalent to taking one car off the road for an entire year, so it has a pretty significant impact, and then in our communities putting food waste in the garbage causes odors and tracks and bugs and makes it moldy, which is not nice for us, but it’s really interesting for animals who love to rummage through our trash. By removing food waste from the garbage, we can eliminate all these issues and save on volume.”

From then explained that Food Cycle Science often gets asked about solutions to the issue of food waste.

“There are a few options,” said From. “There’s green bins, which are common in bigger cities with high population density in the right infrastructure, but these can be cost prohibitive or operationally challenging to implement in more rural and remote areas. Also, we’ve seen across the country that green programs are struggling to get above 40 to 60 per cent participation rate, meaning that a lot of organics are actually ending up in the landfill, indicating green bins alone aren’t really solving our problem. Now many people in your community might backyard compost, and I think we would all agree this is kind of the ideal solution, but unfortunately backyard composting isn’t feasible for everybody. It’s certainly not a year-round solution, and there is concern about bears and other animals getting into it. Then finally, the easiest solution would be to continue to do what we’re doing, just throwing our organic waste into the landfill, but the long-term impacts are costly and harmful to the environment, so we’ve proposed a different way to manage food waste with the food site where we make it easy to deal with and right in the home.”

The FoodCycler, From explained, is a small kitchen appliance roughly the same size as an air fryer and very straightforward to use.

“You put your food waste into the machine, you push a button, and then in only a matter of hours, you’re left with a dry, sterile, odorless and nutrient-rich soil amendment,” said From. 

The FoodCycler, From explained is able to handle all types of food waste, including meat, poultry, fish, dairy, some bones, and avocado pits. The machine, From stated, can be used anywhere with a plug, and most people will keep it in their kitchen just for convenience, but it can also be put in a basement or a heated garage.

From explained that the FoodCycler will process one to three kilograms of food waste per cycle with each cycle taking about four to eight hours to complete and will use one kilowatt hour per hour, and the cost is about 11 cents, with the resulting soil amendment having many beneficial uses.

From then outlined to Council the two units that Food Cycle Science would recommend for the municipality: the Food Cycler Eco3 and the FoodCycler Eco5.

“The Eco3 holds three and a half liters, and it’s designed for smaller families or spaces like apartments and condos, and the Eco5 holds five liters and is recommended for larger households or those who just produce more waste,” said From. “Both machines are equipped with a normal carbon filter that will eliminate any smells that occur during the process, but you don’t actually need the carbon filter in there for the machine to work properly, so if you’re keeping this in a basement or a garage where you’re not going to notice the smell, you don’t need to worry about that.”

One cycle, From explained, will reduce a bucket full of food waste up to 90 per cent in volume, leaving 100 to 200 grams of soil amendment and the byproducts created during the process are a completely dry, sterile biomass that has many beneficial uses. Most people, From explained, would probably use it to fertilize their home garden, but it could also be used to any type of factor in a composter, as it integrates well into an existing leaf and yard waste system. 

From an environmental standpoint over its lifetime, From explained, the food cycler is actually a net negative carbon solution. 

“When you use your FoodCycler to avoid bringing food waste to the landfill, you’re actually avoiding more greenhouse gases than you create in that entire process,” said From. “Now, the same can’t be said for other municipal operations, such as waste facilities or waste recycling collection services, which do rely on a large fleet of rehouse gas in vehicles. In addition to the environmental impact, the traditional method of managing waste is a heavy burdened system with costs for trucking, labor and maintenance, but the FoodCycler offers a decentralized approach to waste management that avoids all of these unnecessary additional, additional labor costs, greenhouse gas emissions from trucking and improper food waste breakdown, and essentially infrastructure costs to municipality or the residents. The moment that a FoodCycler enters a home, there’s an immediate and impactful food waste diversion taking place, which is very exciting. One thing we’ve learned from working with municipalities is that residents are really interested in being part of the solution. They want to try new things, they want options, and they want their government to bring these options to their community. You want to use a FoodCycler, you get to do that. You get to bring something that’s innovative and tangible to your residents. And since food waste accounts for such a large portion of household waste, it is the single most impactful strategy to achieving your waste diversion targets.”

From also touched upon municipal pilot projects that Food Cycle Science have engaged in with the Food Cycler, stating that there has been a 98 per cent participation rate in those projects and overwhelmingly positive results associated with them, including a user experience rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars.

“Our municipal program starts with an initial 12-week pilot phase to test the viability of the solution in your community,” said From. “During the phase participating, residents would purchase a new FoodCycler from the municipality at a subsidized rate. They check the number of cycles they run for a period of 12 weeks, and then at the end all we ask is that they complete a survey. We can evaluate the program’s success. We then present those results back to you in a feasibility study or a final report. Additionally, we would be presenting a plan to expand the program to more residents in your community, ensuring that this plan aligns with your community’s specific needs and goals and your budget. The pilot projects work based on a subsidy model. Um, so food cycle science provides a discount. We reduce the retail price of the units by 50%. We then ask that the municipality subsidizes the cost by a hundred dollars per household, and then participating residents would choose which model best suits their needs or their family best, and they contribute that remaining amount, and then at the end of the program, the food cycler is there to keep and to keep using, so you’re going to be benefiting from the reduction in food waste afterwards.”

From recommended a 100-household pilot for the community of Raymond, which would require an investment of $10,000 plus the cost of shipping taxes, but From also emphasized that Food Cycle Science was open to working with the community in ways that would best meet their needs and budget. 

Council ultimately decided to accept From’s Food Cycle Science presentation for information.