Limiting food wastage has seen the adoption of former World War I and World War II slogans by antiwaste groups such as WRAP. World War I poster. "Waste not, want not. Prepare for winter. Save perishable foods by preserving now."

Biogas typically refers to a mixture of gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas can be produced from regionally available raw materials such as recycled waste. It is a renewable energy source and in many cases exerts a very small carbon footprint.

The main environmental threat from biodegradable waste is the production of methane and that the reason it should be recycled in order to produce biogas.

Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion with anaerobic bacteria or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure, sewage, municipal waste, green waste, plant material, and crops. It is primarily methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and may have small amounts of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), moisture and siloxanes.

The gases methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide (CO) can be combusted or oxidized with oxygen. This energy release allows biogas to be used as a fuel; it can be used for any heating purpose, such as cooking. It can also be used in a gas engine to convert the energy in the gas into electricity and heat.

Methane in biogas can be concentrated via a biogas upgrader to the same standards as fossil natural gas, which itself has had to go through a cleaning process, and becomes biomethane. If the local gas network allows, the producer of the biogas may use their distribution networks. Gas must be very clean to reach pipeline quality and must be of the correct composition for the distribution network to accept. Carbon dioxide, water, hydrogen sulfide, and particulates must be removed if present.

In North America, use of biogas would generate enough electricity to meet up to 3% of the continent's electricity expenditure. In addition, biogas could potentially help reduce global climate change. High levels of methane are produced when manure is stored under anaerobic conditions.

Food waste or food loss is food that is discarded or cannot be used. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous, and occur at the stages of production, processing, retailing and consumption.

Anaerobic digestion produces both useful gaseous products and a solid fibrous "compostable" material. Anaerobic digestion plants can provide energy from waste by burning the methane created from food and other organic wastes to generate electricity, defraying the plants' costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, food scraps constitute around 19% of the waste dumped in landfills, where it ends up rotting and producing methane, a greenhouse gas.

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane

Source: Wikipedia (All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.)