CNN News:食物垃圾 味道財富

According to the United Nations, food waste is defined as food that`s initial safe for people to eat, but it doesn`t get eaten because it`s left to spoil or it`s thrown out. The U.S. government estimates that food waste in America could be as high as 40 percent of the food supply.

根據(jù)聯(lián)合國，食物垃圾的定義是，食物對于人類本來是安全的，但是由于沒被吃掉而造成破壞或者被扔掉。美國政府估計，在美國所提供的食物約有高達(dá)40%的食物稱為了食物垃圾。

But there is a process that ensures that food left to waste doesn`t stay that way.

因此需要一個程序確保剩余的食物不再遭此命運(yùn)。

REPORTER: Americans send more than 30 million tons of food to the landfill every year. But as the saying goes, "One person`s trash is another`s treasure" -- really smell treasure.

記者：每年，美國人制造約3000萬的食物垃圾。正如諺語，一個人的垃圾是另外一個人的財富，但是只是味道財富罷了。

BOB YOST, A1 ORGANICS, VICE PRESIDENT: We`re not dealing with the Bed, Bath and Beyond. These are the smells of nature.

我們不處理衛(wèi)浴、床上用品等。這些是大自然的氣味。

REPORTER: Welcome to Heartland Biogas, a facility in rural Colorado that takes food waste from all over the state and turns it into electricity.

記者：歡迎來到Heartland Biogas，這是科羅拉多鄉(xiāng)村設(shè)備，它將從各個州的食物垃圾轉(zhuǎn)變成電能。

YOST: The waste comes from grocery stores, from cafeterias, from restaurants, packing houses, meat preparation, dog food or pet food manufacturing facilities, food processors, just about any place that has a food-based waste.

這些食物來自食品雜貨店、自助餐廳、餐館、罐頭工廠、肉類加工廠、狗糧店或者寵物食品生產(chǎn)廠、食品加工廠，幾乎任何地方都存在糧食浪費(fèi)。

REPORTER: The process Heartland uses is called anaerobic digestion, and as the name implies, it works just like our human digestive systems, by breaking down food into energy, in this case, electricity.

記者：Heartland的加成程序叫做厭氧消化。就如同它的名字一樣，這個過程就像我們?nèi)祟惖南到y(tǒng)，將食物分解成能源，只不過，在這里被分解成電能。

The food waste that comes into the facility is separated from any packaging, chewed up into a more digestible state, and mixed with bacteria, in one of Heartland`s 1.7 million gallon holding tanks. And while in human digestion, gas is far from being the goal. Gas is exactly what Heartland is after.

將垃圾食物與其包裝進(jìn)行分離，然后將其進(jìn)入體積約有170萬加侖大設(shè)備加工為更易消化的狀態(tài)，然后混入細(xì)菌。在人類的消化系統(tǒng)中，氣體不是目標(biāo)。但是在Heartland中，氣體就是其所追求的。

Remember the smell from before? It`s methane and it`s a great source of renewable energy.

還記得之前的氣味嗎?它指的甲烷和另一種可再生能源的先導(dǎo)物。

YOST: We create three things: gas, liquid soil amendment, and solid soil amendment of peat moss like material.The digester is just like your stomach`s bacteria. The bacteria eat the organics and then they create gas. Not unlike what we do.

我們創(chuàng)造了三種物質(zhì)，氣體、液體土壤改良劑、堅實(shí)的土壤改良劑如泥炭苔蘚等材料。消化池就像胃的細(xì)菌。細(xì)菌吃有機(jī)食品，然后產(chǎn)生氣體。