It’s time to rethink food waste

The Facts

1. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013) Food wastage footprint - Bing video

2. (CNA Insider, 2021) Why So Much Food Is Lost In The Supply Chain | Food, Wasted 2/3 - Bing video

3. (Water Resource Recovery, 2018) Food Recovery Hierarchy - Wasatch Resource Recovery

4. (United Nations, 2022) THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org)

Waste along the supply chain

Food waste and food loss are generated at every stage of the distribution system. From farm to distributor, and then from retailer to consumer, each additional layer not only increases cost and complexity but also leads to greater loss. Therefore, reducing food waste and food loss can ultimately lessen the burden on the agricultural and waste management systems.^*

Consider this: with each layer added from farm to table, another day is introduced into the process. Consequently, improper handling, incorrect storage, drops, spills, damage, and pests become more likely, exacerbating financial and carbon impacts. Additionally, long transportation times result in 15-20% of product damage before items even reach consumers .^* This not only affects farmers but also compels middle handlers to apply increasingly large markups on each product due to the inevitable receipt of damaged or unsellable crops. As a result, the entire system becomes more strained and inefficient.^*

ORCA's Mission For Less

Food waste is one of the largest causes of anthropogenic climate change, with traditional waste disposal exacerbating an already broken system. ORCA technology was designed with one primary goal in mind: to take every garbage truck off the road. While this vision may seem straightforward, the underlying message is so much deeper. By removing garbage trucks from organic waste management, we are also removing the financial, operational, and environmental complexities associated with traditional waste management systems.

Consequently, we are making significant strides toward lessening our impact on the planet. This is the foundation from which the concept of “Less Food Waste” emerges. Let’s talk about less.

ORCA strives to create an intuitive, organic waste management system that streamlines data collection, sustainable reporting, resource extraction, and responsible disposal into one piece of kitchen equipment.

Less Food Waste

ORCA+ software tracks and manages your food waste habits, allowing your team to adapt purchasing habits to reduce food waste before it's created.

Less Garbage Bags

ORCA doesn't require any food waste to be bagged beforehand, allowing your team to take food from the cutting boards, directly to the digester.

Less Bins

Clear up your garbage room or loading dock, and decrease your waste pickups by eliminating the need to store organic totes or garbage bins.

Less Pests

ORCA begins to digest your food waste as soon as it enters the system, eliminating the potential for pests attracted by the odours that come from the decomposition of food.

Less Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Mitigate emissions related to the hauling or landfilling of organic waste, including methane gas. ORCA does not produce any gas during the digestion process.

Less Labour

With a bottomless food waste bin right in your kitchen, the ORCA significantly reduces labour hours spent bagging and moving heavy food waste around your facility.

Less Time Wasted

Keep your chefs in the kitchen, and stewarding focused on other tasks. With ORCA, your team spends less time on storing and disposing of waste, and more time on what matters.

Less Cost

With waste hauling rates on the rise, lock in rates for organic disposal for up to 5 years with ORCA. No added surcharges or price escalations.

In 2015, the EPA created the Food Recovery Hierarchy. This inverted pyramid sets priorities for reducing food waste and saving natural resources.^* The highest priority, according to the pyramid, is to reduce waste at the source while leaving landfilling of food waste as the least favorable and last resort option.^*

The ORCA Technology aims to hit multiple levels on the Food Recovery Hierarchy in order to comply with the overarching message of reducing food waste. We believe if you can’t feed people, animals, or the planet, you should feed the ORCA.

How ORCA Ties In:

Source Reduction & Reuse

Through ORCA’s intuitive diversion reporting software, we encourage the data collection and analysis of current and past food waste trends. Understanding where food waste is generated (which days of the week, certain menu items, or in particular event spaces) allows clients to reduce at the source. Making smarter purchasing decisions, understanding customers’ preferences, and therefore wasting less.

Feeding Hungry People or Animals

ORCA has made it a priority to ensure our clients understand the options they have for donating and reusing food that is edible for consumption. Supporting local food rescue organizations and ensuring resources are being donated when applicable.

Industrial Use & Composting

When organic waste is processed in the ORCA, microorganisms extract the resources needed to replenish our ecosystems, much like composting. The ORCA system is able to extract water, carbs, fats, and proteins from food waste in the form of liquid effluent. Once this liquid reaches the wastewater treatment plants, it is fully recycled to replenish the watershed, converted to renewable energy (through larger anaerobic digestion systems), and can be turned into fertilizer for land application. This closes the loop on converting food waste to energy, using ORCA’s natural digestion process and tapping into pre-existing infrastructure, eliminating the harmful impacts that traditional hauling has on human health and our environment.

Our commitment to promote Global Sustainability

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, during the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations Member States provided a blueprint for “peace and prosperity for people and planet, now and into the future.” (United Nations, 2022) At the core of this message are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that act as a call to action for all countries to work toward ending poverty, alongside improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth while fighting climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forest ecosystems.^*
ORCA strives to support all efforts from our global partners, working in collaboration for these unified goals.

ORCA Digesters currently aligns its business practices and efforts with 8 goals and 10 goal targets, which include 2.4, 6.3, 7.2, 7.3, 8.8, 9.1, 9.4, 11.6, 12.3, 14.1.

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development