eNewsletter
Through finding better uses for waste and turning manufacturing by-products into new energy sources Kraft Foods is drastically reducing the amount of manufacturing waste its facilities produce.
Kraft Foods is making steady progress reducing the amount of manufacturing waste its facilities produce through finding better uses for waste and even turning manufacturing by-products into new energy sources. The company has 36 facilities in 13 countries that send zero waste to landfills, and it has reduced its manufacturing waste by 50 percent since 2005.
The company is getting results by changing its behaviour, business practices and culture. Because solid waste generated from manufacturing accounts for more than 99 percent of Kraft Foods’ total waste, it is focusing on its plants. The company recycles or reuses about 90 percent of manufacturing waste. Its strategy is simple: generate less waste and find new uses for the waste it does produce.
In Australia and New Zealand, manufacturing waste at Kraft Foods’ chocolate facilities in Claremont and Dunedin has been reduced by 35 and 20 percent respectively, since 2010. And, together, the plants have eliminated more than 600 metric tonnes of waste in two years. Employees’ continual improvement programs seek out ways to minimise waste through engineering and operations, and waste reduction campaigns raise awareness for colleagues across both facilities.
In Austria, Kraft Foods’ Vienna coffee plant has been sending used coffee bean husks to a biomass power plant, creating renewable energy for neighbouring homes. In China, Kraft Foods’ Shanghai plant has swapped many inbound shipping containers for reusable cartons, reducing the amount of carton waste by 25 percent – this allows 90 percent of containers to be reused.
In Indonesia, as most of Kraft Foods plants’ waste was from plastic packaging film, the plants found a third party to recycle it into new bags and buckets. And, in the US, Kraft Foods’ San Leandro and two Fresno, California plants separate materials for recycling and divert more than 100 tonnes of food waste, such as corn skins, for use as animal feed.