Someday soon, waste food may find a second life as a source of heat in New York City. In a new pilot program, New York is collecting food waste and trucking it to a wastewater treatment plant in Brooklyn, where it will eventually be generating enough heat for more than 5,000 homes.

The plant will be able to process around 500 tons of food waste per day, which represents about 15% of the organic trash in the city. The rest will be composted. Organic material makes up approximately 30% of the waste stream.

"It captures the tremendous energy value rooted in the organic waste," says Rachel Amar from Waste Management, the company coordinating the collection of all of the trash.

If the project is successful, the city hopes to roll it out to other wastewater treatment plants as well.