Watch the New York State Fair Butter Sculpture Get Recycled into Energy

The 2021 New York State Fair has come and gone, but this year’s butter sculpture lives on. Check out this video on how it gets converted from a work of art into electric.

From beginning to end, The American Dairy Association North East and the Master Gardeners at Cornell Cooperative Extension make sure none of the 800-pound sculpture is wasted. First, the butter comes from O-AT-KA Milk Products in Batavia. It's scrap butter, unsuitable for sale or consumption due to defects in packaging. Once the fair's 18 day runs end, a second dairy farm then recycles the art work.

Noblehurst Farms in Pavilion, is actually located just 15 miles from where the butter originated. The farm uses food waste from grocery stores, like Wegmans, and universities, to create electricity.  The butter is added with the other waste and placed into a digester creating enough electricity to power the farm, the farm’s on-site creamery, and about 350 homes for a year.

We are honored to be recycling the New York State Fair Butter Sculpture for the sixth year in a row,” said dairy farmer Chris Noble of Noblehurst Farms and Craigs Creamery. “We will mix the butter sculpture with other food waste and convert it to energy over the course of about 28 days.

The theme for the 2021 sculpture, “Back to School, Sports, and Play...You’re Gonna Need Milk For That,” featured three scenes - teens in a school cafeteria, on a soccer field, and at home gaming.