Hungry Giant reshapes ship waste management

Hungry Giant Waste Systems provides dehydration technology to cruise brands
The company’s systems are running on many vessels, some fleet wide
Chewie is a self-contained bio-grinder that grinds and dewaters food
Bio-dehydrators reduce waste volume by 70pc to 93pc
Retrofitting existing ships makes up around 90pc of cruise installs

Hungry Giant Waste Systems is providing dehydration technology to cruise brands, with some major brands using the technology fleet wide. The Austin-based company’s systems are already running on many vessels. Some use Chewie, a self-contained bio-grinder that grinds and dewaters food, and some use bio-dehydrators, a food waste dryer.

Waste from international voyages is treated by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service as regulated garbage, which has to be incinerated, sterilised or otherwise handled under strict protocols before it leaves a ship in a US port. Cutting how much waste a ship has to carry and offload matters. Hungry Giant’s dehydrators cook the waste at temperatures well above what any pathogen can survive and then pull the water out through a steam-and-condense process.

Retrofitting an existing ship rather than building the system into a newbuild makes up around 90pc of Hungry Giant’s current cruise installs. The company handles the whole job itself, sending its own survey crew to assess the space and its own installation team to fit the units. Initial talks are ongoing with other major brands, alongside a push into smaller river vessels.

Chris O’Brien shared “The company’s systems are already running on many vessels, some major brands have our technology fleet wide, and they are seeing really strong ROI.”