Everything FRSH discovers, we publish — in plain language, with sources, free for every student and teacher.
The same natural process as a landfill — but captured instead of leaked. Here's the loop our pilots run.
Food scraps from cafeterias, dorm kitchens and homes get collected — peels, leftovers, coffee grounds. All of it is fuel.
A sealed biodigester uses naturally occurring microbes to break down organics, capturing biogas instead of letting it become methane pollution.
A generator converts the biogas into electricity and heat. The leftover digestate becomes garden fertiliser — the loop closes.
Our first six study notes — plain language, cited sources. Each full text appears here as it clears final review.
Written by the FRSH founding team · sources cited in every note · nothing ships before review. New to the subject? Start with Note 01.
Roughly a third of food produced is lost or wasted (FAO: ~13% lost along the supply chain, ~19% wasted at retail and home) — and with it, every joule of solar energy the crops captured. A first-principles look at waste as stored fuel.
Full text in final reviewFour stages — hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, methanogenesis — described without jargon, with the classroom demo we used to test understanding.
Full text in final reviewOur protocol: sampling points, tally sheets, weighing routine and how we separated avoidable from unavoidable waste. Includes the spreadsheet template.
Full text in final reviewThe honest physics of conversion yields — why home-scale digesters are meaningful for heat and lighting, and what they realistically cannot do.
Full text in final reviewMethane handling principles, why sealed systems and supervision matter, and the boundaries of a school-scale pilot.
Full text in final reviewClosing the loop — what remains after gas extraction, why it's valuable, and how our first school garden trial used it.
Full text in final reviewNew notes are announced to members first — the mailing list opens with the pilot network. Ask us anything in the meantime →
A comparative study of existing open-source biodigester designs, assessed for safety, cost of materials and buildability by students.
Conversations with waste managers, university researchers and community gardeners on what makes small-scale energy projects last.
Short, honest reports of what our pilots diverted and generated — including what underperformed and why.
Toolkits and guides a student team can realistically build and maintain — free for every campus.
A step-by-step protocol, printable tally sheets and a spreadsheet template to measure your cafeteria's food waste in one week.
How to found an FRSH chapter: recruitment flyers, school approval letters, workshop agendas and mentor contacts.
Plain-language notes on anaerobic digestion, biogas safety and what home-scale units can and cannot do — cited and reviewed.
The technical terms behind FRSH, explained in plain language — the same definitions our notes are built on.
Every educational claim on this site is written by the FRSH founding team — no text is copied from other websites. Where we quote external figures or science, the sources are listed here.
Source of the "roughly one third" figure used in Note 01: an estimated 13% of food is lost along the supply chain and 19% wasted at retail and household level.
fao.org/platform-food-loss-wasteReference for how digesters capture biogas (50–75% methane) and convert waste to energy, used across Notes 02, 05 and 06 and the "Scrape · Digest · Power" explainer.
epa.gov/anaerobic-digestionReference for the four-stage microbial process (hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, methanogenesis) summarised in Note 02.
epa.gov/agstarThe calculator assumes ~0.8 kWh recoverable energy per kg of food waste (biogas heat equivalent; electricity output is lower) and ~2.1 kg CO₂e avoided per kg diverted from landfill. Everyday equivalents use typical appliance figures: ~15 Wh per phone charge, ~50 W per laptop, ~10 W per LED bulb, ~0.1 kWh per kettle boil and ~0.15 kWh per EV kilometre. These are FRSH's conservative rounded estimates — not lab measurements.