Feb. 22, 2019
NORTH ADAMS, MA — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) announces the next
Green Living Seminar will take place on Thursday, March 7, with a presentation on
“Closing the Loop: Composting Food Waste” by Trevor Mance, owner of TAM Organics LLC,
a commercial food and farm composting facility in Bennington, Vt.
All Green Living Seminars will take place at 5:30 p.m. in room 121 of the Feigenbaum
Center for Science and Innovation on the MCLA campus. Presented on Thursdays throughout
the spring semester, this series is free and open to the public.
The theme of this semester’s series is “Sustainable Food and Farming,” which focuses
on the past, present, and future of how food is produced and distributed in our region,
and strategies for improving the sustainability of our food system.
Mance will talk about large-scale composting and how his operation works. He also
will share his thoughts about the potential to capture more organic waste for composting
in the future.
As a senior at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vt., in 1996, Mance
worked at the Town of Shaftsbury Landfill in Vermont on the weekends, and started
up a weekend hauling route. After high school, he expanded with a route in Bennington,
and attended Hudson Valley Community College, then Sienna College.
Over the years, TAM grew into a hauling company with 15 trucks and 25 employees. The
Bennington facility recycles inorganic materials, and a facility in Pownal, Vt., processes
recycled inorganic materials and for shipping recycling, construction, and demolitions
debris to appropriate end users.
This semester’s Green Living Seminars will take place through April 25. Following
Mance’s talk on Thursday, March 7, the next Green Living lecture will take place on
Thursday, March 14, when John Kozik, general manager of MCLA Dining Services, and
Anthony Fiorentino, executive chef of MCLA Dining Services, present “Sustainable Dining
at MCLA.”
Podcasts of this semester’s Green Living lectures will be posted online following
each presentation at http://www.mcla.edu/greenliving.
MCLA’s Green Living Seminar Series hosts lectures by local, regional, and national
experts. The seminars are organized around a central theme related to the environment
and sustainability. The 2019 series is a presentation of the MCLA Environmental Studies
Department and MCLA’s Berkshire Environmental Resource Center.
For more information, go to www.mcla.edu/greenliving or contact Traister at (413)
662-5303 or Elena.Traister@mcla.edu.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) is the Commonwealth's public liberal
arts college and a campus of the Massachusetts state university system. MCLA promotes
excellence in learning and teaching, innovative scholarship, intellectual creativity,
public service, applied knowledge, and active and responsible citizenship. MCLA graduates
are prepared to be practical problem solvers and engaged, resilient global citizens.
For more information, go to www.mcla.edu.
