Costa Mesa Converting Food Waste Into Energy

Costa Mesa residents with the appropriate receptacles are being asked to put food waste in separate containers from other trash

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By Jordan Graham

Orange County Register

Joyce Sandison’s kitchen garbage bin sat nearly empty, but a clear plastic pail in her sink bulged with carrot peelings, corn cobs and potato skins.

Just hours after Costa Mesa became the first city in Southern California to launch a food-scrap recycling program, the 84-year-old retired loan processor was ready to turn her vegetable medley leftovers into fertilizer and fuel.

“Times are changing,” Sandison said, standing in the kitchen of a home she bought in the 1950s. “But we’re happy to comply.”

Sandison and 116,000 others in Costa Mesa and northeast Newport Beach are part of the next big thing in recycling – transforming food to energy.

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