800 Pounds Of Wasted Butter Will Shockingly Help New York State Residents

Turns out, 800 pounds of butter that can't be consumed won't go to waste. How it will help New York State may surprise you.

The American Dairy Association reached out to the Hudson Valley Post to answer the question " What Happens to the 800-pound Butter Sculpture After the New York State Fair?" The answer may surprise you.

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What Happens to the 800-Pound Butter Sculpture After the New York State Fair?

The 55th Annual Butter Sculpture at the New York State Fair has come down, but it isn’t going to waste.

This year’s sculpture, “Dairy Every Day is a Healthy Way – Keeping Kids’ Health on Track,” highlighted the important nutritional role dairy foods play in helping brains, bones and bodies grow.

This week, the American Dairy Association North East, in conjunction with Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners and Noblehurst Farms, dismantled the 800-pound sculpture at the New York State Fairgrounds.

The butter isn't suitable to be eaten so the 800 pounds of butter will be recycled by a New York dairy farm.

"Ultimately, the butter – which was provided by O-AT-KA Milk Products in Batavia, N.Y., and was unsuitable for sale or consumption for a variety of reasons - will return to Western New York, less than 15 miles away from where it was originally produced, to be recycled at a local dairy farm," American Dairy Association stated.

Noblehurst Farms in Pavilion, Livingston County, New York To Recycle Butter

Noblehurst Farms in Pavilion, New York plans to combine the 800 pounds of butter with other food waste from local food manufacturers and educational institutions.

The farm will then run all of the waste through its digester, turning the waste into energy.

“We are honored to be recycling the New York State Fair Butter Sculpture for the eighth year in a row,” Co-owner of Noblehurst Farms Jack Klapper said. “We will mix the butter sculpture with other food waste and convert it to energy over the course of about 28 days. That energy will be turned into electricity which will power homes in the local community.”

The farm's digester breaks down the material and creates enough electricity to power the farm, the farm’s on-site creamery and about 350 homes for a year, officials note.

The butter from the 800-pound Butter Sculpture alone will be able to power one house for three days, according to the American Dairy Association.

Read More: Many Sick In New York State From Food Sold At Popular Supermarket

“Our awareness of the role that dairy farmers are playing in addressing the global food waste problem has definitely heightened,” Klapper said. “We are hopeful that our innovative food waste reduction practices will bring additional value as New York State focuses on reducing methane and sequestering carbon in the coming years.”