The Technical and Administrative Feasibility of Bokashi Composting as a Solution for Food Waste Treatment in a Typical North American Educational Facility Setting

Food waste is a nationwide problem in the US, leading to environmental concerns. A fermentation-based composting method, the Bokashi compost method, is proposed to mitigate the negative consequences of food waste (FW) disposal in educational facility settings. Bokashi utilizes fermentation to break down large molecular compounds in FW and convert them into compost. It presents several theoretical advantages over the currently widespread landfill methods. This method was subsequently examined for its technical and administrative feasibility and value through experiments and data analysis. Technically, the composting process can break down FW without defects such as odor emission, and produce compost with nutritional value for agricultural use; Administratively, the Bokashi composting method is found to be slightly less economical than the conventional landfill method. A typical high school has the capacity to process the FW generated, and there is a high likelihood of community cooperation. There is significant potential for scaling this model across educational facilities. However, studies on optimizing Bokashi workflow remain pending.