After piloting their first anaerobic food digester at the University of Pittsburgh’s Posvar Hall in late 2024, Ecotone Renewables, founded by Pitt alumnus Kyle Wyche and winner of the 2023 Pitt Sustainability Challenge, will expand operations with additional ZEUS units on campus.
Thirty percent of all the food produced in America goes to waste, and 13% of that is from colleges and university dining halls. In other words, 22 million pounds of food from college campuses is tossed out annually. Kyle Wyche, a Pitt alum, recognized this issue and co-founded Ecotone Renewables in 2019. Their team would go on to develop Zero Emissions Upcycling Systems, or ZEUS, to be placed in colleges, hospitals, senior homes, and other communities across the country. Housed in cleverly designed shipping containers, ZEUS convert food waste into fertilizer.
ZEUS uses a process called anaerobic digestion, where microbes break down deposited food waste, all without the help of oxygen. A sorting system within ZEUS ensures that inorganic materials like plastic, glass, and metal are removed from the food waste to optimize microbe digestion. As food waste is broken down, ZEUS continuously produces a liquid, organic fertilizer called “Soil Sauce,” rich in macro- and micronutrients that help nourish gardens and green spaces. In 2023, the University recognized the potential for ZEUS to reduce food waste on campus, and crowned Ecotone Renewables the winner of the 2023 Pitt Sustainability Challenge. ZEUS will contribute to Pitt’s efforts to achieve its carbon neutrality goal by 2037; each gallon of Soil Sauce produced diverts 90 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Since the first ZEUS digester was installed at Posvar Hall in November 2024, it has diverted 1,010 pounds of food waste from the Eatery. A second unit will be installed outside Sutherland Hall in summer 2025 to process food waste from the Perch, with future installations planned for select Pitt regional campuses.
Aurora Sharrard, assistant vice chancellor for sustainability at the University of Pittsburgh, and Kyle Wyche, founder and chief operating officer of Ecotone Renewables, in front of the ZEUS unit at Posvar Hall.
The post Ecotone Renewables Expands Food Waste Solutions on Pitt’s Campus appeared first on Pitt Sustainability.
