Leftover food from SB150 being reused

South Bend's 150th birthday party wrapped up on Sunday and it was the biggest party the city has seen in recent history.

With a big party comes a lot of waste. The city of South Bend's Office of Sustainability aimed to make SB150 a sustainable event.

To do that they had biodegradable food containers, food and waste collection in place, as well as refillable water stations and bio-diesel generators.

"We have learned so much about the process that we hope to apply, not only to future community events but also around the city government to make things more sustainable,” said Therese Dorau, the Director of the Office of Sustainability.

Now that the party is over, the city is taking the leftover food waste to Culver Duck in Middlebury.

Culver Duck is a duck farm that hatches and processes about thousands of ducks per day. They also have a digester which is used to convert waste into a reusable material.

“They're bringing their food waste that is leftover from this past weekend. We're going to put it in our digester and it will help produce gas and electricity,” said Tim Rouch, General Manager of Culver Duck.

The digester will break down the food and then convert it into methane gas which is then converted into electricity.

“When the truck gets here from South Bend we'll dump it all in the pit. All the food waste will go in there and then each day we'll take the payloader and scoop up some and put in the pit,” Rouch added.