At This Berlin Company, There's No Such Thing As Wasted Food

BERLIN, CT — "Farm to table" is a common buzz phrase used to emphasize the consumption of fresh foods that are both environmentally sound and nutritionally pure.

But what happens when people don't clean their plates, as our grandmothers used to say?

In Berlin Wednesday for a forum on sustainable waste and trash disposal, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Scharf Dykes added to that notion.

She was at Berlin-based Bright Feeds, a green startup company that takes food scraps and turns it into nutritious animal feed for agriculture.

And it just so happens to be a visual example of what a new bill in the state legislature and championed by Gov. Ned Lamont is all about.

“Bright Feeds is really taking farm-to-table and adding on table back to farm and it’s really amazing to see what that can mean for jobs and sustainability and also for cost savings for our municipalities and businesses here in the state,” Dykes said via Twitter.

Lamont, himself, was on hand Wednesday with Dykes and other state leaders to tour Bright Feeds' unique manufacturing operation at 76 Fuller Way, an operation that opened in November 2022.

Basically, Bright Feeds takes food scraps or unused food from all sorts of sources — municipal recycling efforts, eateries and large food operations — grinds it all down, processes it and resells it as high-quality nutritious animal feed.

Hence, what Dykes calls, "farm to table to farm." (With a visit to Bright Feeds between table and farm.)

Lamont used the tour to take the opportunity to promote his bill in the legislature that addresses many environmental and sustainability issues in Connecticut.

Among them is the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority’s (MIRA) decision to close its Hartford waste-to-energy facility.

This, Lamont said, has forced municipalities to scramble about what do with their waste following the July 2022 decision.

Whereas the waste, including food waste, could simply be burned and used to create energy in state, it now is sent out-of-state in some cases and, simply, deposited into landfills because there is now a shortage of waste disposal options in Connecticut.

The bill supported by Lamont is called "An Act Managing Waste and Creating a Waste Authority."

If approved, it would do several things, but mainly it would create a state-based waste authority to create and oversee waste management policy and procedures.

It would also enact multiple policies encouraging more recycling (like food waste), less consumption and ship as little waste out of state as possible.

Berlin's Bright Feeds outlet was touted Wednesday as an example of what the bill aims to do more of.

Other similar operations would turn food waste into compost, other types of animal feed and, even, energy.

And, according to Dykes, money not spent by municipalities for waste tip fees with out-of-state haulers is money that can be spent elsewhere.

Said Dykes: "I have yet to meet any citizen of the state of Connecticut who would tell me they’d rather see their precious municipal tax dollars going toward paying landfill tip fees in Pennsylvania versus being able to invest those dollars in their schools, their sidewalks and other important services.”

For more information on House Bill 6664, "An Act Managing Waste and Creating a Waste Authority," click on this link.

For the ongoing legislative status of House Bill 6664, click on this link.

For more information on Berlin-based Bright Feeds, click on this link.