The Challenge
Rhode Island doesn’t have substantial infrastructure for food waste diversion, which is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Approach
Remix Organics connects its customers with local composting farms and anaerobic digesters by handling the collection, processing, and transportation of the food waste.
By The Numbers
Since 2014, the company has made a significant impact:
- Over 150 businesses served (including large food waste producers like Brown University)
- 42,829 tonnes of food waste diverted
- Roughly 25,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided (based on the impact calculator from ReFED)
- 8 full-time job positions created
Divert food from landfills.
To help businesses in Rhode Island divert food waste through composting and energy generation.
Program Description
Statement of Impact
This company directly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions from local food waste that would otherwise end up in Rhode Island landfills.
Statement of Changes
Remix Organics started in 2013 as a vertically integrated business focused on composting food waste from restaurants and coffee shops and then selling the products until pivoting to hauling and transport in 2020. Currently, there are 8 full-time employees in the Remix Organics team who work daily to divert tonnes of food waste in Rhode Island and neighboring states. Each morning, trucks start picking up the waste from the signature yellow bins in Providence, eventually driving around the whole state and some parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Depending on the route and the material, trucks either drive to the Earth Care farm in Charlestown for composting or the Rhode Island Bioenergy Facility in Johnston for anaerobic digestion. This cuts down the greenhouse gas emissions from food waste, as it no longer produces significant amounts of methane in landfills – instead, it’s turned into fertilizer for local agriculture (composting) and biogas for residential heating and cooking (anaerobic digestion).
Future Plans
In the future, Remix Organics plans to expand their outreach to other states in southern New England, start working with other types of organic waste like liquid residues from breweries, and pilot residential food waste diversion projects in Providence (on a neighborhood scale).
This Rhode Island Story was prepared by Rassul Toleugazy