Carnival Corporation announced it has completed the installation of nearly 600 food waste bio-digesters across its fleet in support its overall commitment to environmental compliance (In this case, not dumping waste at sea).

Not sure what a biodigester is? Biodigester technology uses an aerobic digestion process to efficiently break down food waste with microorganisms, enabling the systems to process anything that can be consumed by a human.

New technology? Not even close.

Restaurants have used Liquid Live Microorganisms to digest food waste and keep floor drains running smoothly for decades. But this is a bit different and indeed good reason to praise the world’s largest cruise line.

In this at-sea application, biodigesters are strategically placed in key areas of the ship where food is processed, making the process much more efficient for crew members to manage and control food waste. Additionally, the machines capture non-food items (silverware, plates, etc) or other materials accidentally mixed with food waste.

It’s just one spoke in a complete wheel of initiatives that will meet Carnival’s long term friendly environment goals. Other spokes include:

• Increase fleetwide coverage of Advanced Waste Water Treatment Systems to over 75% by 2030
• Send a larger percentage of waste to waste-to-energy facilities where practical by 2030 and aspire to send 100% by 2050
• Partner with primary vendors to reduce upstream packaging volumes and aspire to partner with primary vendors to ensure near 100% reuse of packaging materials by 2050
• Aspire to build ships without the need to discharge to the ocean or air (zero-emission ships) by 2050

More information on the company’s sustainability efforts is available at www.CarnivalSustainability.com.