In Seattle's South Park neighborhood, the Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association has launched a program using biodigesters to convert food waste into liquid fertilizer and biogas. Started in 2021, the initiative addresses local garbage issues while fostering community involvement and green jobs. Residents and businesses participate by diverting waste, reducing emissions compared to traditional landfilling.
The Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (DVSA) began the project in 2021 in partnership with Food Lifeline, Sustainable Seattle, Black Star Farmers, and Chomp, the company providing small-scale biodigesters. Maria Perez, who joined DVSA at age 14 through a youth program, was hired six years later to manage it. She trained residents and restaurants on waste reduction, weighing compost weekly and distributing the resulting liquid soil amendment.
Each biodigester, roughly the size of a small shipping container, processes 25 tons of food waste annually into 5,400 gallons of fertilizer using microbes, mimicking a cow's stomach. It also produces biogas for potential energy use. "It was just really exciting [to see] how everything came into a circular economy," Perez said.
The initiative stemmed from community meetings in South Park, a predominantly Latino area, where residents identified street garbage as a key issue. DVSA executive director Edwin Hernandez noted the biodigester's benefits: sustainable infrastructure, green jobs, and transforming waste like eggshells and banana peels into local resources. Funding came from an EPA grant, the City of Seattle, University of Washington faculty for a feasibility study, and state programs like NextCycle Washington with seed money from the Department of Commerce.
King County Solid Waste Division's Adrian Tan highlighted U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that over a third of food becomes waste, often ending in landfills. Seattle's compost service diverts some organics, but garbage travels by rail to Oregon, emitting methane. Chomp CEO Jan Allen emphasized local processing to cut trucking pollution: "Chomp is based on the aspiration to eliminate trucking of food into the community, and eliminate trucking of waste out of the community."
Trainings occur in Spanish, English, and Khmer, with over 30 residents and five restaurants participating. Challenges include distributing the amendment and finding space for more units to boost biogas production. Perez, now in college, remains proud: "I feel happy that this happened, because there’s a lot of people that now know about this project, and how it’s affecting South Park."