Question 1

What actually happens to the food waste?

Accepted Answer

The Eco Digester holds plant-based media seeded with microbes and enzymes. Food waste is mixed slowly with air and warm water and digested aerobically. Most of it is gone inside 24 hours and leaves as grey water through a normal floor drain. Nothing is stored, bagged, or hauled.

Question 2

What can go in, and what cannot?

Accepted Answer

Anything you can eat, raw or cooked: fruit, vegetables, meat, fish including the bones, crustacean, eggs and eggshell, cheese, bread, rice, noodles. It rejects fruit stones and pits, cutlery, packaging, gloves, napkins, and anything you would not eat. Large bones and hard bivalve shells are confirmed case by case at the site assessment; a shredder option exists for tougher waste.

Question 3

Does it suit a care home or hospital kitchen?

Accepted Answer

Yes. These units run in Canadian hospitals and long-term care homes, on military bases, in hotels, and on ships. The unit is sealed stainless steel, takes scraps at any hour so nothing is stored, and has a security option for sites that need it locked. It sits in or beside the dish room on castors and needs hot and cold water, a floor drain, and a power outlet.

Question 4

How do I size one from residents or beds?

Accepted Answer

Start with meals. Three meals a day for each resident or occupied bed, at about a quarter kilogram of plate and prep waste a meal, is a fair first estimate, and the calculator does the arithmetic. We confirm the size at the site assessment, ideally after a one-week bin weigh.

Question 5

Does it smell?

Accepted Answer

No. Aerobic digestion does not produce the methane and sulphur compounds that make a stored organics bin smell. Kitchens usually notice the loading dock smells better, because the bin is gone.

Question 6

What does it need from my building?

Accepted Answer

Hot and cold water in, a floor drain out, a power outlet. Every unit is on castors. The smaller units (LFC-25 to LFC-100) run on a standard single-phase 15 A circuit. Larger units need three-phase power. We confirm all of it in the free site assessment.

Question 7

How big is it?

Accepted Answer

The LFC-50 is about the footprint of a commercial dishwasher, 90 by 68 cm. The LFC-300, for a large hotel or hospital kitchen, is 156 by 109 cm. Every model is on castors.

Question 8

Why lease instead of buy?

Accepted Answer

No capital outlay, and the parts of ownership that go wrong are ours: consumables, service, repairs, monitoring, and replacement. One monthly fee, twelve-month minimum, then month to month.

Question 9

Is the drain water safe?

Accepted Answer

Grey water: the food is digested inside the sealed drum first, and these units run in hospitals, hotels, and on ships. Sewer rules vary, including whether the line needs a grease interceptor, so drain approval is part of our site assessment and we handle the paperwork with your utility.

Question 10

How do I prove the diversion for reporting?

Accepted Answer

Every unit weighs what goes in on certified load cells and logs it to a cloud dashboard: kilograms by hour, day, month, and year, plus CO2e avoided. We send a monthly report you can drop into an ESG or sustainability filing.

Question 11

Where do you service?

Accepted Answer

Across Canada, from our base in Newfoundland and Labrador. Remote sites and camps are welcome; we plan service around your access.

Question 12

Who makes the Eco Digesters?

Accepted Answer

Every Eco Digester we lease is a Power Knot LFC unit. Power Knot is a California manufacturer that has built aerobic digesters since 2009, and their units run at Canadian military bases, correctional facilities, hospitals, and on cruise ships. We are the local lease and service partner.

Questions kitchens ask first

Questions kitchens ask first