Where’s the Waste? A ‘Circular’ Food Economy Could Combat Climate Change

CHICAGO — A gigantic steel cylinder shines in the afternoon sun outside The Plant, a 93,500-square-foot “living food laboratory” here. To the untrained eye, it looks like a space rocket. But it’s not.

It’s an anaerobic digester.

Bubbly Dynamics, the organization that nine years ago converted this former meatpacking facility into a hub for local food businesses, said that, once completed, this “mechanical stomach” would turn organic waste into compost, biogas and a nutrient-rich liquid in which to grow algae.

The digester is expected to help Bubbly Dynamics implement a circular economy, a model that could help fight climate change by feeding a rapidly growing urban population with food grown locally using organic methods, according to experts. This closed-loop system would create little to no waste because materials would be reused, shared, repaired and refurbished.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global linear production system that relies on chemicals and fuel to produce and transport food over great distances is to blame for between 21 percent and 37 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. However, proponents of the circular model argue that cooperation among various groups in the food-production system can significantly reduce energy consumption and waste.

The Plant, which is home to about 20 food businesses — including a kombucha brewery, a coffee roaster, a chocolate maker and a vegan-ice-cream maker — is among the global pioneers of the concept.