Uncategorized

Food manufacturers generate waste for hundreds of different reasons. Production changeovers. Off-spec products. Expired inventory. Packaging failures. Wastewater treatment. Ingredient losses. Product recalls. Damaged goods. Process residuals. The traditional approach has been straightforward: Find an outlet and get the material out of the plant. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Food manufacturing facilities have…

The environmental discussion surrounding food waste in landfills tends to focus on methane. There is good reason for that. Food and other organic materials decompose in the oxygen-limited environment of a landfill and generate methane. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, food waste accounts for approximately 24% of material disposed of in U.S. municipal…

Dissolved air flotation, or DAF, systems are widely used in food and industrial wastewater treatment. They perform an important job: removing fats, oils, grease and suspended solids from wastewater before the water moves to its next treatment step. But that process creates another material that has to be managed: DAF sludge. For many facilities, DAF…

“Landfill diversion” and “zero landfill” are often used interchangeably. They aren’t necessarily the same thing. For a food manufacturer trying to improve its waste program, understanding the difference can help turn a sustainability objective into something operationally useful. Landfill Diversion Starts With the Waste Stream Landfill diversion is exactly what it sounds like: finding alternatives…

Food manufacturers generate packaged products that can’t always be sold or distributed. The reasons vary. Products can be off-spec, expired, damaged, mislabeled, part of a production changeover or simply no longer suitable for their intended market. Once the decision is made that the product can’t be used, another decision begins: What happens to it next?…

Much of the conversation around food and organic waste has traditionally focused on a basic question: How should it be disposed of? A more useful question may be: What value remains in the material? Food manufacturing residuals can contain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, organic matter and other nutrients that may have agricultural value. A material…