How can you ensure that there is less waste at my company site in the first place?
That question was posed by one of our partners in the food industry to Milgro, as part of their ambition to become Zero Waste.
Waste reduction is an important part of a Zero Waste approach. By producing less waste, you avoid unnecessary transport and processing costs, reduce CO2 emissions and limit the use of new materials - which means that valuable raw materials are retained longer in the chain.
A full container of chips
A large quantity of rejected chips arose daily at the company site - due to packaging errors, product surpluses or products that did not meet quality standards, among other reasons. The chips were still in the original bags and went straight into the container, after which they were disposed of as residual waste.
The result: a dumpster full of chip bags. Because the packaging could not be compressed, the container quickly filled up and had to be emptied frequently - even though it contained relatively few kilograms of waste.
Waste reduction through repurposing
During the analysis in collaboration with Milgro, we examined how this waste stream could be retained as a raw material instead of ending up as residual waste. The chosen solution: a shredder that reduces the chips directly at the source.
This provided two advantages. Because the chips were shredded separately from their packaging, they could be safely used as animal feed - without mixing with packaging material. This gave the stream a new function within the chain and preserved valuable raw materials.
Whereas previously the waste container had to be emptied frequently because the chips in their packaging took up a lot of volume, reducing the size of the chips means that significantly more fits into the same container. That means less transportation - and therefore less carbon emissions.
This is a concrete example of waste reduction through repurposing: a stream that previously ended up as residual waste has been repurposed as raw material.
Wondering what we can do for your organization?
Schedule an no-obligation meeting meeting with Alex van Kuilenburg, Team Lead Food at Milgro and discover how you can reduce waste volume, CO2 emissions and waste costs.
