Vermont is the only state in the nation to ban all food scraps from landfills, (some states require partial bans). Since the law went into effect in 2020, 46 haulers have stepped up to the plate to help Vermont businesses manage their food scraps.
Agri-Cycle (ACE), is one such hauler with a sole focus in managing food scraps and liquid residuals. The Company started eight years ago, however its staff have many more years of experience and expertise in reducing food waste. Agri-Cycle customers range in size from small food manufactures to large grocery store chains, including 17 Vermont Hannaford stores (as well as any and all other businesses generating food scraps). Agri-Cycle provides each customer with a clean, efficient, dependable, customer-focused service, in turn helping to protect the environment and reducing greenhouse gases. Each day, its customers divert about 300 tons of food waste, enough to provide power to 2,500 homes each year!
Food scraps are recycled into renewable energy and on farm products. Agri-Cycle has partnered with the Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste District to compost food scraps at the District’s site located in North Hartland, Vermont, starting in 2022. Agri-Cycle is committed to securing local markets for food scraps wherever feasible. Agri-Cycle is also committed to local anaerobic digestion through its partnership with Vanguard Renewables, at Goodrich Farm in Salisbury, Vermont.
Recycling all food scraps waste
In its most recent data from 2018, before the state’s landfill ban went into effect, Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation estimated that 80,000 tons of food scraps are disposed of annually in the state; an estimated 30,000 tons of that, or 38%, is packaged - think moldy loaves of bread in their plastic bags, rotten onions in plastic netting, damaged cans, and out-of-date packaged items. Recycling such foods, increases the tonnage of food waste kept out of Vermont’s sole landfill in Coventry, in turn reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As many grocery stores don’t have the staffing and time to empty or remove foods from their packaging, Agri-Cycle provides businesses with the opportunity to divert this material through its state-of-the-art depackaging machine. Hannaford’s partnership with Agri-Cycle enabled their company to achieve Zero Waste to landfill.
Agri-Cycle's roots
Agri-Cycle launched operations in 2013, partnering to support sister company, Exeter Agri-Energy (EAE), itself an offshoot of Stonyvale Farm, a 5th generation dairy farm in Exeter, Maine. ACE operates throughout New England and works with digesters throughout the region, including the new digester at Goodrich Farm in Salisbury, Vermont. ACE’s Vermont operations include plans to manage the compost site located at the Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste District’s Organics Recycling Facility in North Hartland, Vermont. ACE powers about 2,500 homes annually throughout its service region and grows thousands of acres of organic fertilizer (digestate), a product from the anaerobic digestion process.
Contact: Carolyn Grodinsky
Email: Carolyn@Agricycleenergy.com
Phone: 802-829-5796
Agri-Cycle works with hundreds of partners throughout the Northeast, making it the premier organics hauling company in the region. Our business partners include supermarkets, restaurants, universities, distribution centers, food processing plants, corporate cafeterias, school districts, municipalities, and hospitals. Agri-Cycle works in conjunction with sister companies, Stonyvale Farm (a fifth-generation family business) and Exeter Agri-Energy, as well as a growing network of anaerobic processers who convert food waste into electricity, fuel, fertilizer, and other beneficial products. Our unique model is a fusion of Maine’s independent farming tradition and energy innovation. Waste collection is a critical component: Agri-Cycle brings food full circle.
