Diverting Food Waste with Agri-Cycle

The Power of Food

In November 2023, the Octagon Lodge, Governor Adams Lodge, and Camp III kitchens began diverting their food scrap waste to a company called Agri-Cycle. Food waste disposed in the landfill is a major contributor to the resort’s scope III emissions. This is why participating in Agri-Cycle's food diversion program high-volume venues is important.

What is Agri-Cycle?

Agri-Cycle is a Maine-based business that transports food waste to a farm which operates an anaerobic digester to produce power.

How Does Anaerobic Digestion Work?

Food Processing:

Food waste is mixed with manure.
Organic matter is fed to microorganisms, which produce heat.

The Result? A Zero-Waste Food System.

The result of this process produces three different phases of matter:

Solid - When cooked, the dried-up matter becomes a product like sawdust. This is used as bedding for their cows.
Liquid - The liquid is used as fertilizer for fields.
Gas - Methane is produced by this process, which is used to produce power for their farm. The extra power produced is sold back to the grid.

Since November, the program has diverted over 3 tons of food waste from the landfill.

What’s the Food & Beverage Department’s Contribution?

The Food & Beverage team are taking the pre-consumer scraps from food prep and collecting them in 5-gallon buckets. Instead of putting the scraps in the trash can, they dump the contents of those buckets in our new green Agri-Cycle cans, which get picked up and taken to the farm.

This new Agri-Cycle program lead by our food & beverage team is a test at two of our high-volume locations with the intent of permanently transitioning to compost and reduce our Scope III emissions.

Thank you to the Food & Beverage team for helping to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and help drive us toward our ForeverProject goal of achieving net zero emission by 2030.