Top: Agri-Cycle’s service area spans 14 states and over 2,400 locations, primarily food waste generators.
In mid-August, Closed Loop Partners announced the acquisition by Closed Loop Private Equity of Agri-Cycle, a major organics collection company in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Closed Loop Private Equity is one of three investment strategies within Closed Loop Partners’ (CLP) investment firm, Closed Loop Capital Management. Closed Loop Private Equity is focused on utilizing a buy-and-build investment strategy, seeking to make investments in cash-flowing businesses and enabling technologies to scale platforms that are fundamental to the circular economy. CLP’s broader work to advance organics circularity includes “platforms to support regenerative food production, innovations to extend food shelf life, technologies to mitigate post-consumer organic waste, compostable packaging field tests, and composting and anaerobic digestion infrastructure.”
Agri-Cycle’s organic waste collection services have been expanding significantly in the last decade, and now span 14 states and over 2,400 locations. Its focus is food waste, mostly servicing major food manufacturers/processors and grocery stores, including Hannaford. It also collects from restaurants, schools, colleges/universities, hospitals, hotels and other food waste generators. Most of the food waste Agri-Cycle collects is anaerobically digested by facilities in the company’s network, including at Exeter Agri-Energy, its sister company at Stoneyvale Farm in Exeter, Maine. Of the remainder, a portion is hauled to Agri-Cycle’s composting facility in Vermont and other composters in the region; the smallest amount goes to animal feed. According to Agri-Cycle, “while our bread-and-butter service involves a network of anaerobic digestion sites throughout our current geographic footprint, we know that a range of solutions is necessary to keep more organics in circulation at their highest value, and where it makes sense, we look to composting and feed as options.”
Beyond the Northeast, Agri-Cycle offers emergency organics collection services, working with “a broad network of digestion, composting, and animal feed outlets across the country.” With this new partnership and funding from CLP, Agri-Cycle will continue to expand its geographic reach and services.
