A new energy plant is generating clean energy for Vermont’s grid using a surprising source: ice cream waste.

According to Electrek, the PurposeEnergy plant in St. Albans is converting organic waste from Ben & Jerry’s into clean energy. 

PurposeEnergy is a waste solutions company that focuses on transforming food waste into usable clean power. 

In 2021, the company signed a long-term feedstock deal with Ben & Jerry’s. As a result, the plant receives “high-strength organic waste and out-of-spec food products,” according to Electrek. Once it reaches the facility, the ice cream waste is processed and turned into both clean water and clean electricity. 

Ice cream waste from Ben & Jerry’s isn’t the only source arriving at the facility, however. 

“Casella, Wind River Environmental, Evergreen Services, and Carmichael Trucking haul additional feedstocks to help centralize food waste disposal across the region,” Electrek noted. 

Food waste is a global challenge, with about 1.3 billion tons of food waste produced each year around the world. Developing innovative solutions to bring that figure down has significant environmental impacts. Since food waste is a major emitter of methane, it exacerbates the overheating of the planet. Thus, reducing food waste also helps decrease the amount of harmful gases entering the atmosphere, which helps combat rising global temperatures. 

The waste facility is set to generate 8.75 million kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity each year. That clean energy will power renewable energy projects through the state’s Standard Offer Program. 

“This project strengthens Ben & Jerry’s commitment to environmental sustainability by providing a long-term solution for organic waste,” Jenna Evans, the company’s global sustainability manager, told Electrek. “It will reduce Vermont’s road traffic, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and decrease phosphorus pollution.”

Readers were excited by the project and discussed the environmental benefits of it. 

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“We’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do with organic wastes of all kinds,” one commented. “Projects like this not only displace fossil fuel use, they burn off methane that would otherwise vent to the atmosphere. This is a fantastic project and I hope we learn a lot.”

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