Apparatus, system and method for automated food waste processing

An automated food waste processing system, the system comprising:

• an enclosure secured to prevent unauthorized access to contents contained therein;
• and
• a food waste processing system housed within the enclosure, the food waste processing system including:
• an anaerobic digester having an input configured to receive a bio-degradable input stream and an output configured to discharge a liquid fertilizer generated by the anaerobic digester from the bio-degradable input stream;
• a sorting receptacle configured to receive a food waste input stream for the anaerobic digester, the food waste input stream including food waste and non-biodegradable material;
• an imaging system configured to automatically capture a plurality of images of the food waste input stream received by the sorting receptacle;
• a processing system configured to automatically process the plurality of images to identify at least plastic waste and metal waste as the non-biodegradable material when included in the food waste input stream as received by the sorting receptacle, the plastic waste and the metal waste identified for removal from the food waste input stream;
• a port accessible at an exterior of the enclosure, the port configured to allow personnel untrained in an operation of the food waste processing system to deposit the food waste input stream from a location outside of the enclosure for an automatic delivery to the sorting receptacle;
• a fertilizer tank configured to hold the liquid fertilizer, the fertilizer tank including an input coupled to the output of the anaerobic digester and an output;
• and
• a liquid fertilizer dispensing device coupled to the output of the fertilizer tank, the liquid fertilizer dispensing device accessible at the exterior of the enclosure, the liquid fertilizer dispensing device configured to allow personnel untrained in the operation of the food waste processing system to remove liquid fertilizer from the food waste processing system from a location outside of the enclosure.

A method of sorting a food waste input stream to generate an input stream to an anaerobic digester housed in an enclosure with other elements of a food waste processing system, the enclosure secured to prevent unauthorized access to contents contained therein, the enclosure including a plurality of exterior walls and a port accessible at an outside surface of an exterior wall included in the plurality of exterior walls, the port configured to allow personnel untrained in an operation of the food waste processing system to deposit food waste into the food waste input stream from a location outside of the enclosure, the method comprising:

• receiving the food waste input stream at the port, the food waste providing the food waste input stream with a 95% or greater percentage by weight of biodegradable food waste;
• automatically processing images of the food waste input stream using a trained neural network to identify non-biodegradable waste including identifying plastic waste and metal waste included in the food waste input stream;
• automatically sorting the food waste input stream to remove the plastic waste and the metal waste based on information provided by the processing of the images;
• automatically delivering the sorted food waste input stream to the anaerobic digester;
• and
• delivering liquid fertilizer produced with the anaerobic digester to a liquid fertilizer dispensing device accessible at the exterior of the enclosure, the liquid fertilizer dispensing device configured to allow personnel untrained in the operation of the food waste processing system to remove liquid fertilizer from the food waste processing system from a location outside of the enclosure.