Bright Feeds, a New England-based green startup, opened its first food waste processing plant in Berlin, Connecticut in October. Licensed to process 450 tons of food waste per day for the next 10 years, the plant is positioned to fill a waste processing gap left by the July 2022 closure of the MIRA plant in nearby Hartford.
Bright Feeds’ 25,000 sq.ft. plant uses cutting edge artificial intelligence and drying technology to convert unwanted food into an all-natural, nutritious soy and corn substitute for animal feed. Bright Feeds developed its proprietary drying technology with engineers at Boston College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It uses best-in-class technology sourced from around the globe, and manufactured and assembled in the U.S.
At capacity, the environmental impact of the Berlin plant is equivalent to removing 22,000 cars from the road every year. The carbon-negative process uses less energy and is more scalable than other food waste recycling solutions.
Food waste is a key contributor to climate change:
•Globally, if food waste were a country, it would be the third greatest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the U.S. (World Resources Institute).
•In the U.S., about 40 percent of food is never eaten – and nearly 70 percent of that waste typically ends up in landfills or greenhouse gas-emitting incinerators (USDA; EPA).
•New England produced over 2 million tons of food waste in 2019, with 520,000 tons produced in Connecticut, where food makes up about 22 percent of disposed waste (Connecticut waste study).
“Forty-one percent of what we burn and bury every year is actually valuable material: It’s food scraps, it’s yard waste, it’s all kinds of organics that are incredibly valuable and can be repurposed,” says Dykes. “The Bright Feeds model is, for the first time, at scale, turning food waste into a food source for animals, which is one of the best uses for organic material under Connecticut’s waste hierarchy.”
According to the EPA, feeding animals is the top solution.
“Yes, we can turn it into compost. Yes, we can turn it into energy. Those are all good – but the best thing is to preserve it as food and use it,” said Bright Feeds board chairman and investor Scott Kalb. “That’s what we’re doing.”
Thanks to its pioneering technology, Bright Feeds can accept a wider variety of food waste than its competitors: not just dry, grain-based waste, but also vegetables, fruit and other wet waste.
Using a variety of food waste enables Bright Feeds to consistently produce a highly nutritious product. Bright Feeds then sells the meal to animal feed manufacturers who use it as an ingredient in their feed.
Published in the December 2022 Edition
