Natural Upcycling

08/22/2023

Growing, growing! Are you a CPA with 4-6 years of experience looking for a local job with a great mission? Look no further!

03/06/2023

10/12/2022

Trailcreek and Plexus Invest in Natural Upcycling in Partnership with Noblehurst Green Energy and Harry Cohen. (see more in the attached press release)

11/18/2021

Chris Foote is good people! We work closely with him and his team and only have good things to say about his vision and what he's accomplished! https://www.wegmans.com/news-media/articles/chris-foote/

“Food has a purpose,” states Chris Foote, Wegmans sustainability manager. “Its purpose is to feed people, not to be thrown in a trash bin. At Wegmans, we’re committed to doing everything we can to ensure food is used for its intended purpose.”

09/10/2021

We made a video to concisely explain what we do! It's never just one sentence...plus this way you can see the various places we are and how it works.

06/04/2021

Christopher Noble of Noblehurst Farms and Natural Upcycling discusses the Food Scraps Recycling Act in the article below.

"Natural Upcycling is upstate New York's largest landfill-diverting food waste collection company and has operations in DE, ME, MD, NJ, PA, VA and Washington, D.C."

What comes around goes around at Noblehurst Farms — in the most literal sense. The seventh-generation dairy farm located in Linwood, NY installed their current anaerobic digester in 2014,. Through the digester, manure and food waste are converted into methane that is converted to electricity, liquid fertilizer used in the fields, and a solid product used for cow bedding.

Read more: https://www.nyfb.org/news/news-articles/noblehurst-farms-looks-toward-future-clean-energy

04/28/2021

Did you know that today is "Stop Food Waste" day? There's even a virtual event you can attend this afternoon if you'd like to learn more about what you can do to minimize waste.

The purpose of "Stop Food Waste" day is to ignite change regarding the global food waste issue. By drawing attention to the problem & at the same time educating through engaging with society at all levels -- we can all learn and share practical, creative and impactful ways to change our behavior to minimize food waste.

Consider:
-33% of all food produced globally is lost or wasted every year
-45% of root crops, fruit and vegetables produced globally is lost or wasted per year
-$1,866: the annual cost of food wasted by the average American family
-25% of the food wasted globally could feed all 795 million undernourished people in the world
-8% of all greenhouse gas emissions each year are due to food loss and waste

https://www.stopfoodwasteday.com/en/index.html

I pledge to stop food waste

04/22/2021

Earth Day takes on special meaning for the team at Natural Upcycling. It is a chance to reflect on the many accomplishments on our 7+ year journey of food waste recovery, but more importantly to focus on what more we can do as a company to make a difference for our planet and for our children’s future.

The UN said recently that if food waste were a country, it would be the #3 largest greenhouse gas emitter. That statement is a stunning acknowledgment of the scope of the food waste problem and how urgently it needs to be addressed. For Natural Upcycling, what started as a pilot food scraps recovery project for Wegmans Food Markets in the Rochester, NY market has blossomed into a multi-faceted food industry focused waste and recycling company that spans multiple states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S. Our focus has always been on serving the customer or “food waste generator” in industry-speak, and embrace and prioritize source reduction, donation and animal feed as preferred destinations for food waste. To that end, Natural Upcycling has collected, recovered and/or recycled over 100,000 tons of food waste over the last year. It is a significant milestone that we aspire to double over the next 3 years.

Many of Natural Upcycling’s customers are already making great strides on their journey to zero waste, and food waste diversion mandates recently passed by states where Natural Upcycling has a significant presence, including New York, New Jersey, and most recently Maryland, will play a part in boosting interest in food waste recovery among all food industry participants. By the way, if you eat food, that includes you too! 🙂

So thank you for being a part of our journey. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more detail about what we do and how you can be a part of the food waste reduction movement. Happy Earth Day!

04/14/2021

An excerpt- New York State’s Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law becomes effective on January 1, 2022. Business that generate an annual average of 2 tons/week or more of wasted food are required to donate excess edible food, and recycle all remaining food scraps if they are within 25 miles of an organics recycler (composting facility, anaerobic digester, etc.). The proposed regulations to implement the law (comment period ends April 27) also include food waste depackaging facilities that are within 25 miles of a generator.

“In the aggregate, I don’t think New York State has enough infrastructure at this time to manage the food waste required to be recycled,” notes Noble. “There are definitely pockets of the state with adequate infrastructure, but in general, not enough. One key to compliance is collection, and Natural Upcycling is equipped to meet that demand. However it is critical to address contamination when making the shift from landfill to increased donation and recycling. From an agricultural perspective, we would love for the industry to evolve where it values clean organics. Ultimately, haulers can be powerful in that space — playing a frontline role in incentivizing food rescue and source separation into clean organics streams.”

More here:
https://www.biocycle.net/servicing-the-food-recovery-hierarchy/

Success with codigestion led a dairy farm in western New York to create an organics collection company that provides food rescue and recycling services.

11/05/2020

Our ranking was released today via the "2020 Rochester Chamber Top 100" livestream! We're ranked #54--not too shabby! More here (we're on page 27 in this digital magazine): https://issuu.com/rochesterchamber/docs/07_02_2020_top_100_supplemental_digital_8.5x11_fin?fr=sZTIwMDE2NjQxNjI

Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get them in front of Issuu’s millions of monthly readers. Title: 2020 Rochester Chamber Top 100 Digital Magazine, Author: Rochester Cha...

08/18/2020

Harry Cohen and Natural Upcycling are doing some pretty great things in Philly! ..."The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market reduced its waste by 80% in less than six months after hiring professional help...." More here: https://www.thepacker.com/article/philadelphia-wholesale-market-diverts-80-its-waste-landfill

The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market reduced its waste by 80% in less than six months after hiring professional help.

08/11/2020

We are humbled to be named to the 2020 Rochester Chamber Top 100 today. This award recognizes our company’s growth, accomplishments and hard work demonstrated to operate a growing business in a challenging economy. Thank you
!!

05/22/2020

So fun! Pleased to be partnering with a great group of people & supplying milk in local areas!

05/20/2020

A great article, introducing our newest customer:"

Harry Cohen, Co-Founder of Natural Upcycling commented, “We are pleased to add Intergrow as a new customer! Our company’s mission is to help sustainably-minded organizations such as Intergrow reduce their carbon footprint and minimize or reduce anything from going to a landfill.” Natural Upcycling works with several other partners throughout the East Coast, recycling over 80,000 tons per year of food scraps or organics."

https://www.hortidaily.com/article/9218448/intergrow-greenhouses-partners-with-natural-upcycling-to-reduce-food-waste/

Consumers have high expectations when it comes to their food. Even in produce, they expect beautifully uniformed, well presenting fruit. But at the end of the day this is farming and it is…

05/13/2020

Natural Upcycling, in response to COVID-19, is expanding beyond its regular anaerobic digestion operations to address the vast quantities of perfectly healthy milk being dumped on farms. By leveraging its logistics and distribution expertise and partnering with the Dairy Farmers of America, Natural Upcycling will launch its initial recovery project by rescuing 25,000 gallons of surplus milk in upstate New York and delivering it to food banks. Our first distribution is this Saturday, May 16, in Dansville.

09/04/2019

A great article with some hilarious puns, covering our NYS Fair butter sculpture final resting place:
https://www.americandairy.com/news-and-events/dairy-diary/dairy-farming/from-butter-to-btus-and-fertilizer.stml?fbclid=IwAR3yPFMB1l8tGR82KwJDrnlPsEOgF-o76MwkVT-M_gIL-q85nf-vacFNvVA

09/03/2019

Repeating the wonderful tradition of Natural Upcycling picking up the the NYS Fair butter sculpture to be converted into energy back at Noblehurst Farms via our anaerobic digester. https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/local-news/ny-state-fair-butter-sculpture-to-be-recycled/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_News_8_WROC_Rochester&fbclid=IwAR3dEXUyCiOIWKiwhCW399sfycDUb9r0JA_bz2TVx2PLPb2cmMg6gEbinJE

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WROC) — As the New York State Fair comes to a close, the centerpiece butter sculpture won’t be going to waste. On Tuesday, the inedible sculpture will be delivered to Noblehur…