Bright Feeds

April 17, 2023

We are proud to welcome Bright Feeds as a Sustaining Advisory Member of The Northeast Recycling Council

New England-based Bright Feeds, NERC’s newest Supporting Advisory Member, is a “startup solving the food waste crisis by diverting unwanted food from the waste stream and converting it into a high-quality, nutrient-rich animal feed replacement for soy and corn.” Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and state-of-the-art drying technology, Bright Feeds accepts all types of food waste from a variety of businesses across the food industry. The company then produces blends for use in a variety of poultry, swine, aquaculture, and cattle feeding operations.


The company’s mission, it states, “is pioneering a new pathway to combating climate change and meeting global food insecurity challenges through innovations in waste management.”


NERC has had a long-standing involvement in solving the critical issue of food waste, as a review of resources on its website confirms. According to a 2021 report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the climate impact of food waste is “equal to the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants.” Bright Feeds’ website emphasizes three critical consequences of food waste:

  • Forty percent of the current food supply in the US is wasted, which equates to $161 billion in economic cost;
  • Ninety-five percent of unused food ends up in landfills or incinerators; and
  • Ten percent of greenhouse gases (GHG) comes from methane produced by food in landfills.


In November, 2022, Bright Feeds opened its first food waste processing plant in Berlin CT. The site is licensed to process 450 tons of food waste per day for the next 10 years. “At capacity, our food waste recycling solution is equivalent to removing 33,700 cars off the road every year,” the company states. Bright Feeds also has collection facilities in Massachusetts in order to service New England and parts of New York State.


This year, Bright Feeds was selected to join the third annual Harvard Climate Entrepreneurs Circle, an incubation program for high-potential ventures working to address climate change. According to the Harvard Innovation Labs, “Bright Feeds helps companies meet their sustainability goals and increase profit margins by turning food waste into high-quality nutritious animal feed.”


“Bright Feeds is excited to be a part of NERC and contribute to a shared mission to minimize waste, conserve natural resources, and advance a sustainable economy through collaboration and action. We look forward to working together with other members to solve the food waste crisis in our region” said Laxmi Wordham, Chief Growth Officer at Bright Feeds.


NERC welcomes Bright Feeds to its growing number of Advisory Members seeking to solve the problem of food waste.


For more information about Bright Feeds click here

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September 17, 2025
The City of Medford won the 2025 Environmental Leadership Award for Outstanding Community presented by the Northeast Recycling Council, for its innovative work to reduce waste and create a more sustainable waste collection system through the City’s free curbside composting program. “I'm thankful to our team at City Hall, the Solid Waste Taskforce, our consultants Strategy Zero Waste and our volunteers for working so hard to launch our curbside composting program and making it such a meaningful success for our community,” Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said. “This award shows that the work we’re doing in both composting and recycling is having real, transformative effects on how our community thinks about waste and the steps we’re taking to create a more sustainable environment for the future. We are honored to be recognized by the Northeast Recycling Council for these efforts.” Each year, NERC honors a community, an organization, and an individual for their outstanding contributions to recycling education and innovation. This year will mark the 9th annual Environmental Leadership Awards Ceremony, recognizing individuals and organizations who help further NERC’s waste and recycling goals. “Our committee is wholeheartedly impressed by the work of the City of Medford, and how important and impactful that work is for the community,” said Sophie Leone, Development and Program Manager at NERC. “It is a perfect representation of NERC’s mission to minimize waste, conserve natural resources, and advance a sustainable economy through facilitated collaboration and action and we are very excited to bestow the City of Medford with this award.” You can read more about the Environmental Leadership Awards here . And if you haven’t signed up for Medford’s free curbside composting program, you can do that at medfordcomposts.com . Read on MedfordMA.org.
By Resource Recycling September 10, 2025
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