Ecotone Renewables is closing the food-loop by recapturing lost nutrients and creating hyper-local energy production.

With food being so ingrained in our social lives, we can sometimes forget about the main purpose of food: to sustain life. As this simple fact slips our minds, we find people holding gold, oil, data, or other assets at a greater valuable; thus, food is also one of the most wasted commodities on the planet.

In the United States alone, 40% of food is wasted annually and the majority of it is sent to landfills where it biodegrades. As this biodegradation process occurs, the methane gas released from the food goes on to contribute to about 8% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Although methane gas is considered a trace gas, only making up about 0.00017% of the Earth’s atmosphere—in comparison CO₂ makes up 0.04% of the atmospheric gas and O₂ makes up 20.95%—it traps 4-fold the amount of heat as CO₂; thus, contributing more to global warming.

It is important to understand how our resources are dispersed and repurposed rather than used and expelled as waste.

With a particular focus on food waste, the traditional lifespan of food went like this: it began at the farm, traveled to the shelf, was consumed by consumers, and then any leftover consumer food waste was transported to landfills. This method is linear and contributes to increased levels of environmental damage. However, there are alternative methods to reduce food waste. Ecotone Renewables LLC, which consists of a team of five, is altering this linear path to a circular, no-waste system. Annually, Ecotone diverts and upcycles food waste from the landfill pathway to produce renewable biogas and nutrient-dense liquid fertilizer. Ecotone believes in no-waste and realized that there was a more efficient way in recapturing lost revenue and nutrients from the original lifespan of food.

More recently, Ecotone is investing in the growth of our local college students through our Spring 2021 Internship opportunity and our upcoming Summer 2021 Internship program. As an intern, students can receive college-level credit to pursue their independent research projects, which will assist them in fulfilling their graduation requirements and providing them with hands-on experience. Since Anaerobic Digestion (AD), the process by which we convert food waste to energy, is still limitedly researched in the United States, our students have the huge opportunity to take liberty in their scope of research around this topic. If you or someone you know is interested in applying for our Summer 2021 Internship program, please fill out our application at tinyurl.com/EcotoneSummer2021Internship.

Read original article published on the Pitt Big Idea Center blog by Kyle Wyche, Chief Operating Officer at Ecotone Renewables and Pitt alum (’19 Ecology & Evolution).