Waterford — In the children’s classic “Charlotte’s Web,” Wilbur the pig partook of this “delicious meal” one morning: “skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a doughnut, the rind of a summer squash, two pieces of stale toast, a third of a gingersnap, a fish tail, one orange peel, several noodles from a noodle soup, the scum off a cup of cocoa, an ancient jelly roll, a strip of paper from the lining of the garbage pail, and a spoonful of raspberry Jello.”

What came out of the slop pail and into Wilbur’s trough likely would have ended up in the kitchen garbage of most homes today, destined for the regional incinerator in Preston.

At the Millaras Piggery in Waterford, where brothers and co-owners John Thomas and Thomas John Millaras are themselves familiar with the E.B. White tale, the approximately 350 swine in residence can boast a more refined diet than the home-cooked sort Wilbur enjoyed.

Nevertheless, the makings of their meals also would have ended up at the incinerator, if not for the enterprising and environmentally friendly efforts of the brothers.

They practice a form of recycling the state wants to see more of as it implements a 2014 law that was intended to reduce the amount of food waste that ends up in the state’s incinerators — about 520,000 tons, 22 percent of all the garbage generated in the state annually.

“They’re eating better than we do — Ben & Jerry’s, Michael Jordan’s Steak House,” Thomas Millaras, 22, said Wednesday, standing beside a wooden pen where about 20 4- and 5-month-old Yorkshire and Duroc pigs snorted, nudged, grunted and lounged in the dirt to stay cool.

“Remember the gingerbread house, and the world-record wedding cake? The pigs were trying to climb on it,” his elder brother, 24, recalled, referring to the leftover specialty bakery items from Mohegan Sun that ended up in the troughs. “They were in hog heaven. Pigs do love their sweets.”

Though the state has 17 piggeries, the 40-acre farm on Bloomingdale Road is one of just three that have the special ovens and regulators’ permission needed to feed food waste to their animals.

The brothers take in about 50 tons of food waste per week — everything from vegetable peelings from restaurant kitchens to plate scrapings to expired meat and overripe produce from Mohegan Sun, ShopRite in New London and Pfizer Inc. in Groton.

In keeping with federal and state laws, all scraps with meat are cooked to 225 degrees for 30 minutes to kill pathogens before being fed to the pigs, while raw produce — watermelon rinds, tomato cores, mushy cucumbers — is fed directly to them.

“We want to get more food waste so we can build a new barn and get more pigs,” John Millaras said. “It’s just better, otherwise you’re just wasting it. Why wouldn’t you want to bring your food waste to a local pig farm?”

Hoping to one day raise up to 1,000 pigs at a time and expand the markets for their pork to local food stores and farmers markets, the two recently have been approaching institutions including the Coast Guard Academy, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and New London Public Schools as potential new sources of food waste.

Their main source, Mohegan Sun, by itself generates about 6 tons of food waste a day, collected by Thomas Millaras around 2:30 a.m. every morning, then emptied into the farm’s oven before 6 and fed to the pigs a short time later for their once-daily meal.

“It’s definitely tough work, but I like it,” he said.

The brothers took over the farm, which had been in the family for three generations before them, about four years ago, carrying on the practice of collecting food waste for their pigs and expanding on it to grow their operation.

At Mohegan Sun, which began sending its food waste to the piggery when it opened in 1996, the system is ingrained in all the restaurant and event kitchens throughout the casino, said Richard Doucette, executive chef there.

“Everything goes in 55-gallon drums we call pig barrels,” he said. “You do have to be careful that no bones or trash goes in there.”

Fruit and vegetable scraps from the cold preparation kitchens are dumped in one barrel, and meat scraps and plate scrapings go in another.

The waste is then sent through a special machine to be shredded and dewatered. Then it is placed in barrels in a walk-in cooler at a loading dock until it is picked up.

The process does save the casino some money on its trash bills, Doucette said, though he couldn’t estimate the amount.

The Millaras’ charge between $10 and $50 per ton to take away food waste, depending on the distance they have to travel and the volume, while the cost for trash dumped at the Preston incinerator is $58 per ton, plus haulers' fees.

“It’s more about keeping our carbon footprint a little less than the amount of money we save,” Doucette said.

Chris Nelson, supervising environmental analyst for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the agency would like to see more food waste diverted to piggeries.

As part of its organics recycling initiative to get more food waste out of the incinerators — where the heavy, wet scraps are a poor fuel source for the fires that generate electricity — his office has created a “food recovery hierarchy” that ranks five pathways for waste food, in order of preference.

First is reducing the amount of waste; second is donating excess food to soup kitchens, shelters and food banks.

Third highest is using scraps for animal feed, followed by the fourth, industrial composting and anaerobic digesters that produce energy.

Landfills and incinerators are the “last resort.”

Under the law that took effect in 2014, large institutions that generate more than 104 tons of food waste per year and are located within 20 miles of a composting facility or anaerobic digester are required to recycle.

Thus far, Nelson said, the state has three composting facilities — in Ellington, Milford and Danbury — and five proposed anaerobic digesters in various stages of the permitting process.

Two would be located in Southington, one in Bridgeport, one in Milford and a fifth in North Haven.

Since no composting facilities or anaerobic digesters are within 20 miles of any of southeastern Connecticut’s large waste generators, none of the colleges, casinos and other institutions in this region will be required to send their food waste there.

But places like Mohegan Sun, ShopRite and Pfizer that are doing it voluntarily are nonetheless appreciated for their part in helping the state reach its goals for getting more food waste recycled, Nelson said.

In addition to the Millaras farm, the Secchiaroli Piggery on Miner Lane in Waterford and a third piggery in East Hampton also are approved to take food waste for animal feed, said Steve Jensen, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture.

The Secchiaroli Farm collects unused food scraps from local eateries such as restaurants and college cafeterias, according to its website. The food is treated through a steaming process before being fed to the pigs.

"A little rice, noodles, fruit makes the meat tastier," Jonathan Secchiaroli, the farm's owner, told The Day in 2014.

At the Millaras Piggery, the brothers are passionate about winning new converts to food recycling, and reaching more customers with their lean, hormone- and antibiotic-free pork, raised without the grain-intensive diets that fatten the pigs at most commercial farms. 

Their pork is sold in whole- or half-pig portions at their farm, by special arrangement through Salem Prime Cuts, and at livestock auctions in Pennsylvania.

The brothers also can be hired for backyard pig roasts, which have been popular this summer.

They also sell compost made from manure and any unused food waste.

“It’s good stuff,” said John Millaras, gesturing toward a large dark mound that emitted no strong odor even a few dozen feet away from its spot behind one of the pig barns.

Lately, they’ve been stealing as much time as they can spare from regular farm chores to help get more food waste to the farm, making phone calls and setting up meetings with potential sources, eager for some special treasures that places such as the Garbo Lobster Co., a Groton wholesaler, possess.

“The lobster shells are really good for the moms and babies,” Thomas Millaras said. “It’s a natural source of iodine. The moms just love them.”

“We’re really motivated to take in more food waste,” his brother added, “and we have the ability to do it.”

j.benson@theday.com