Sen. Tom Carper, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and senior member of the committee, toured Bioenergy Devco’s Bioenergy Center in Jessup, Md., April 4.

The facility uses anaerobic digestion to recycle up to 110,000 tons of organics annually, producing renewable natural gas for energy, and sustainable soil amendment for agricultural and other land uses.

The company is awaiting state permits to begin construction of a similar facility at its Seaford-area composting plant. The company plans to convert poultry waste into natural gas and compost using an anaerobic digester process at its Bioenergy Innovation Center facility.

The company would continue to operate its composting facility and add the soil amendment from the anaerobic process to the compost.

Anaerobic digestion is technology that naturally breaks down organic wastes, which would otherwise be headed for incineration or landfills, or left to pollute local environments, and instead turns the waste into renewable energy and an organic soil amendment.

“Turning organic waste into renewable energy not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but also fosters job creation – a win-win. I look forward to identifying opportunities where we can work together to advance organics recycling, which has great potential in addressing Delaware’s poultry waste,” Carper said.

“We are committed to ensuring that the federal government is a good partner with state and local governments and businesses in supporting zero-waste goals and generating high-quality jobs,” Cardin said. “By resourcing critical infrastructure like organics recycling facilities, composting facilities and wastewater infrastructure, we can take actions to reduce waste and protect our air, water and land.”