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The massive amount of food waste sitting in landfills can be a difficult fact to digest. According to Conor MacManus, a University of Rhode Island College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS) alumnus, approximately 90% of household food waste ends up in landfills. When you consider the fact that 40% of this food waste is compostable, MacManus says it\u2019s a clear issue of unsustainability that needs to be addressed, especially in Rhode Island. \u201cWe have approximately 15 years left before we reach the capacity at Rhode Island\u2019s one and only landfill in Johnston,\u201d MacManus explains. \u201cIt\u2019s looming and it\u2019s burdening our future in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacManus, who has always been ambitious in his desire to create a more sustainable society, majored in Green Markets and Sustainability at URI. \u201cI realized times are changing and our generation is kind of at the forefront of it,\u201d says MacManus, who graduated from URI in 2014. His passion to identify more sustainable solutions led to the creation of Rhodeside Revival LLC in 2018, a curbside composting company established by MacManus and fellow CELS alumnus Miguel Costa. Their goal: take on Rhode Island\u2019s food waste issue.<\/p>\n
MacManus\u2019 interest in sustainability started during his high school years. \u201cI\u2019ve always had an interest in renewable energy,\u201d he says. This interest, which was invigorated after taking some of Dr. Simona Trandafir\u2019s environmental economics courses, eventually led him to enroll in the Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (ENRE) program in CELS. He credits his experience as a CELS student in ENRE with inspiring him to pursue his interests in the sustainability field. \u201cIt motivated me to get out there and make a difference and know that I can,\u201d says MacManus.<\/p>\n
This inspiration came to life in MacManus\u2019 senior year, when he and friends noticed the amount of food wasted in the university\u2019s dining halls. After a few conversations, they started the URI Composting Club, a student-run organization, still active today, that educates people about the benefits of composting. \u201cThat kind of started our interest in composting and food waste,\u201d he notes. \u201cWe saw what a difference we could possibly make.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a curbside composting company, Rhodeside Revival provides food scrap collection services for homes and businesses. These food scraps are then brought to Earth Care Farm in Charlestown where they are turned into compost. The goal is to divert food scraps from becoming food waste in the landfill.<\/p>\n
The company is also focused on educating people about the importance of sustainable disposal of food waste, whether it\u2019s at the URI Sustainability Summit or Narragansett Elementary School. \u201cWe\u2019ll never say no to an event,\u201d MacManus says. \u201cWe are always trying to educate, we\u2019re still learning ourselves, you know, so the more we get people informed about this, the bigger difference we\u2019ll make.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to running the company, MacManus works full time as a solar project manager for Sol Power, one of Rhode Island\u2019s leading renewable energy companies. Balancing his workload can be challenging, but the success and growth of Rhodeside Revival and support he has received from people continues to inspire his passion for the company and its mission. What does MacManus consider a successful day? \u201cPhysically taking hundreds of pounds of food scraps away from the landfill and coming home, opening the email and finding five to ten people have signed up for the program,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his CELS experience, MacManus notes how much he was able to learn, and how that knowledge is helping him achieve his goal of creating a more sustainable society. He advises students to take full advantage of the knowledge and experiences they\u2019ve gained at URI and not take it for granted. \u201cENRE provides you with so much positive information; use that information as power,\u201d he says. \u201cDon\u2019t be scared, everybody fails at things. But it\u2019s time to make a difference and you can\u2019t do that by sitting on your couch.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The massive amount of food waste sitting in landfills can be a difficult fact to digest. According to Conor MacManus, a University of Rhode Island College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS) alumnus, approximately 90% of household food waste ends up in landfills. When you consider the fact that 40% of this food waste is compostable, MacManus says it\u2019s a clear issue of unsustainability that needs to be addressed, especially in… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles","category-research-profiles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17451,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12403\/revisions\/17451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}