Best and Highest Use

UVM and Casella Work Together to Move Closer to “Circularity”

For nearly 50 years, Casella Waste Systems has been asking a simple question: How can we do more with waste material than just disposing of it? UVM researchers are helping them find the solutions, no matter how complex.

If you’ve spent any time in the Northeast, you have likely spotted Casella’s signature white-and-blue trucks servicing your town. They’re a mainstay across New England and New York—and more recently Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Most customers see their household trash and recycling gobbled up by the powerful compactors but don’t give much thought to what happens next. Turns out that disappearing your empty water bottles and last week’s leftovers is just the tip of the iceberg, a small fraction of the broad and sophisticated material management infrastructure that Casella has built. And with the help of UVM researchers, they are pioneering industry-leading innovations that will give us all a cleaner, safer world to live in.

“We're not in the garbage business. We're in the business of protecting public health and the environment,” says John Casella, a UVM parent and the company’s chairman and CEO. “Our goal is to put these materials to their best and highest use, both from an environmental and an economic standpoint. We view waste as a resource for producing renewable energy and as a raw material for manufacturing new products.”

Doug Casella founded the company in 1975 in Rutland, Vt., collecting waste from residential customers in a single pickup truck. A year later his brother John joined him, and together they built the state’s first recycling center in 1977, and launched one of the earliest food collection programs in the country in Burlington. Since then, the company has grown to become one of the largest recyclers and most experienced fully integrated resource management companies in the eastern United States. For 30 years, Casella has invested in a collaborative partnership with UVM, supporting undergraduate scholarships, guest lectures, and graduate fellowships, as well as cutting-edge research that continues to improve the industry and reduce the environmental impact of waste.

“We are about sustainable material management. That's what we strive to do, and that's what makes us different," says Paul Ligon ’90, Casella senior vice president and chief revenue officer, as well as parent of three UVM graduates. “Our company culture and core values really align with that pragmatic, hands-on UVM spirit of, ‘Hey, it’s great to talk about sustainability, but show me how to go and do it. Let’s make it happen.’”

Casella has partnered with research faculty and graduate fellows in UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment to test a new food de-packaging system at the company’s recycling facility in Williston, Vt. More than a third of food waste in the state is still packaged, but Casella is evaluating the new technology’s efficiency at removing packaging so that the organic contents can be used to generate a clean, renewable source of energy called biogas. As part of the research, graduate fellows have developed new methods to quantify and identify microplastic contamination and its impacts on agricultural soils.

“I have always been impressed with Casella’s eagerness to support rigorous science and learning,” says Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences Eric Roy, who leads the microplastics research. “With their support, our graduate students have been able to pursue leading-edge research resulting in products that inform both policy and practice. And undergraduate students benefit from having state-of-the-art equipment at their fingertips and opportunities to learn about important technology in organics recycling. I would hold up our team’s work, supported by Casella’s gifts, as an example of how such partnerships, when grounded in an authentic quest for knowledge, can benefit society and the environment.”

In September, the Grossman School of Business recognized Casella with its prestigious Vermont Legacy Enterprise Award at its 12th Annual Vermont Legacy and Family Enterprise Awards.

“UVM is a strategic partner with whom we share so many interests and goals,” says John Casella. “We see the university as an important incubator of talent and passion and innovation for our industry. As we think about the policy, infrastructure, and impact that will make Vermont a leader in sustainable resource management, that requires the research and the brain trust that comes from UVM. It’s invaluable not only to us but to the state and beyond.”