Anshul Friedman-Jha and Isabella Lok

How does turning waste to fuel help the air and climate?

In 2010, America produced 133 billion pounds of food waste. In addition, 40% of the food in the U.S. goes uneaten. However, this food waste doesn’t need to be “waste”. As a solution to the food waste problem, we propose Waste2Fuel to produce alternative fuel for your cars, trucks, and even planes. Waste2Fuel benefits the climate in 2 main ways. For one, it reduces the emission of the greenhouse gas methane from landfills because the waste in those landfills offgasses a significant amount of methane. Without Waste2Fuel, waste in large landfills would remain stagnant and continue to give off greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that trap heat. Another way Waste2Fuel fights climate change is that the product, ethanol, produces less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fossil fuels like petroleum. For example, biodiesel can reduce Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions by 78.45%, according to the EPA.