Food Recycling

Short answer: The footage shows a Chinese plant processing expired packaged food. Workers shovel bags of snacks onto conveyors, a machine strips the wrappers, and the food comes out as an orange meal.

Chinese manufacturers sell these de-bagging lines for expired packaged food. One maker says its line opens bags, separates food from plastic by air and screening, and sends the food on to feed processing. Chinese media report that feed factories buy expired or near-expiry stock such as biscuits and mooncakes by the ton. In a September 2026 report, a Hebei feed-plant worker said moldy or spoiled products are rejected. The food is crushed and dried, tested against feed standards and blended with corn and soybean meal. Restaurant and household kitchen waste is a separate stream with stricter rules. After African swine fever spread through China in 2018, the government banned feeding food waste to pigs. Reuters reported that the ban pushed waste processors toward options such as insect farms. Kitchen waste is mostly treated by anaerobic digestion for biogas, composting, or conversion into fuel and fertilizer, according to a review by the French research agency CIRAD. On April 29, 2021, China passed its Anti-Food Waste Law, which took effect the same day. In 2025, according to the Wilson Center's New Security Beat, China launched 20 city pilot programs to collect and treat food waste for animal feed, partly to cut its reliance on imported soybeans.