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How to Submit Data for your Anaerobic Digestion Facility

Thank you for your interest in providing information about your anaerobic digester. This data is valuable to EPA and other stakeholders involved in anaerobic digestion projects. Personally Identifiable Information will be protected to the extent allowable under the Freedom of Information Act. Data will be aggregated prior to release so that responses from any individual facility cannot be identified. 

EPA designed three different surveys to gather data from the different types of anaerobic digesters which are described below. 

Stand-alone food waste digesters: Stand-alone digesters typically accept and process feedstocks from one or more sources for a tipping fee. Other stand-alone digesters are built to manage a certain type material for a specific business. These digesters can process yard waste, manures, and wastewater solids, but the primary feedstock is usually food waste.

On-farm digesters that co-digest food waste: Anaerobic digesters on farms are designed to process manure. However, many farms also accept and process other organic wastes from offsite, including food waste.

Digesters at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) that co-digest food waste: Anaerobic digesters at WRRFs are designed to process wastewater solids. However, many WRRFs also accept and process other organic wastes from offsite, including food waste.

2017 Data Collection

EPA received approval to collect AD data from the White House Office of Management and Budget on December 29, 2016. This approval allows EPA to collect data annually for three years. The first phase of data collection, which focused on 2015 data, was completed in 2017.  The information collected has been summarized in the July 2018 report entitled: Anaerobic Digestion Facilities Processing Food Waste in the United States in 2015: Survey Results.

2018 Data Collection

The second phase of data collection, which focused on 2016 data, was completed in 2018.  The information collected has been summarized in the September 2019 report entitled: Anaerobic Digestion Facilities Processing Food Waste in the United States (2016): Survey Results.  

2019 Data Collection

The third phase of data collection, which focused on 2017 and 2018 data, is now complete. The information collected will be summarized in the third report in this series which is targeted to be released in September 2020.