On May 9, Gillette Stadium hosted RecyclingWorks in MA, MassDEP, and US EPA for the WasteWise Spring Forum on food recovery across the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy. The forum started with remarks from John Fischer, Branch Chief, Commercial Waste Reduction & Waste Planning at the MassDEP. John provided an update for attendees on solid waste…
Infinite Herbs and Specialties is a distributor of culinary herbs. Their packaging facility in Everett trims, packages, and ships herbs received in bulk from their production facilities. Infinite Herbs worked with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and RecyclingWorks in MA to set up organics collection to comply with the Commercial Food Waste Disposal Ban.…
Some quantity of spoiled and damaged foods are an inevitable part of supermarket and food manufacturing operations. Being able to divert these food products from landfills has been a challenge given that many foods are sealed in packaging. However, BioCycle details how one Massachusetts company, E.L. Harvey & Sons Inc., invested in mechanical separation technology…
While food waste in the United States is a systemic problem with massive implications, there are many local organizations across the nation that are developing cutting edge solutions to cut the amount of food that gets landfilled. ReFED, a nonprofit comprised of leaders across all sectors who are dedicated to finding scalable solutions to reducing…
Colleges produce a lot of waste throughout the year, but there may be no time when campuses produce more than the end of the school year when students move out. During move out, rather than hauling their mini-fridges and futons home, students often opt to get rid of them. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette,…
Coalesce, an organization that works with colleges and universities to develop collaborative solutions to improve sustainability, recently wrote on the challenges posed by compostable plastics for food waste diversion programs. Many institutions, especially universities, have switched to BPI certified disposable compostable products, such as cold cups and cutlery, rather than traditional plastic options. Most compost…
Experts estimate that approximately 8.5 million tons of furniture waste is sent to landfills each year, even though much of the “waste” is still usable either as parts or as a whole. Over the past decade, though, increased interest in furniture waste has forged important and fruitful relationships, according to a Waste360 article highlighting the…
When Berkshire Community College (BCC) saw the opportunity to defend their 2016 statewide RecycleMania title, they didn’t waste it. Four Massachusetts schools – BCC, Hampshire College, Endicott College, and UMass Amherst – placed in the top 50 of the college & university recycling challenge. BCC took the top prize for the state and claimed 4th…
The Foxborough Patch reports that MassRecycle awarded their annual Recycler of the Year in the Business category to Patriot Place. The award is given to a business that has developed and operates an outstanding recycling/waste reduction program that increases recycling and/or reduces waste generated by their business. The award comes as a result of Patriot…
In the face of a changing dairy market, Barstow’s Longview Dairy Farm in Hadley, MA capitalized on another product from their cows: manure. Manure Manager reports that Vanguard Renewables invested in the construction of an anaerobic digester that allows the farm to repurpose the manure as both fuel and fertilizer while reducing business operation costs.…
