Food, Organics Recycling Plant Opens In Western Mass

An organic recycling center is coming to Western Massachusetts at a time when Massachusetts is running out of places to put its garbage.

Food waste will be processed and turned into energy at a new organics recycling facility in Agawam. The photo here is an illustration and was not taken in Agawam.
Photo Credit: *Wikimedia Commons/By petrr - https://secure.flickr.com/photos/gustavthree/2431874910, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26750389*

Kristin Palpini

12/11/2020 11:20 a.m.

On Thursday, Dec. 10, Vanguard Renewables announced the opening of its Organics Recycling Facility in Agawam off Main Street.

An organic recycler deals mostly in food and beverage waste.

“We are excited to welcome Vanguard Renewables to our business community, and particularly appreciate that it is a green business,” said Agawam Mayor William Sapelli in a statement. “Recapturing food waste that would have been sent to a landfill is such an amazing concept and we’re proud to have it here in Agawam.”

To the mayor's point, Massachusetts is running out of places to put its garbage as landfills across the state continue to close and waste is hauled to other states at great expense, according to WBUR.

The Agawam facility will depackage and process expired goods, off-spec batches, or unsafe to eat food and beverage products. The extracted food is transported to one of Vanguard’s Massachusetts where it will be combined with farm waste and converted into renewable energy, Vanguard said in a press release.

Along with its other facilities, Vanguard anticipates processing 500,000 tons of organic waste into energy in 2021. Massachusetts has about a dozen organic recyclers including ones in Westfield, Wilbraham, and Hatfield.

Click here to follow Daily Voice Springfield and receive free news updates.