Reducing Production Waste
We have introduced a simple hierarchy of:
- Reduce
- Reuse
- Recycle
Our overall objective is to reduce total waste, year on year, by five per cent, and for our UK sites to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2012.
Achievements to April 2010
- Seventy-five per cent volume reduction of waste going to landfill, year-on-year, since April 2009, from 150 to 37kg per tonne of finished product
- Waste disposal costs down 18 per cent in the same year, from £3.3m to £2.7m
- Four sites achieved zero waste to landfill
Target to April 2011
- Five per cent volume reduction of all waste year-on-year.
- Another four sites to achieve zero waste to landfill
Longer-term targets
- Continued five per cent volume reduction of all waste year-on-year
- Zero waste to landfill by all 17 sites by 2012
Individual site initiatives
At all three of our biscuit factories we introduced a plan to reduce the production of broken and irregular biscuits, which are sent away for pig feed. It’s a quality-control campaign called “Starve the Pig”, and in its first year it reduced waste by 2,352 tonnes. It’s a good example of what can be achieved by good communication that stimulates behavioural change.
At our sandwich-making plant at Manton Wood, near Worksop, we started sending mayonnaise containers back to the supplier to be cleaned and reused instead of sending them to landfill. This together with other initiatives, such as separating waste for recycling, has enabled the factory to reduce its waste going to landfill to just three per cent of the total.
Gunstones Bakery in Sheffield has so far diverted 90 per cent of its waste away from landfill. Cardboard and plastic waste is now recycled, while food waste goes to be incinerated at a local energy-recovery power station, which converts the heat into electricity for the National Grid.
Our Green Isle Longford facility, where we make Goodfella’s pizzas, is now diverting waste raw dough, which can’t be reused, to an animal feed provider, enabling it to achieve a 90 per cent reduction in material going to landfill.
The Fox’s biscuits site at Kirkham has set up a system to capture fat and oil residue from washing down equipment. The Fat Trap separates the oils from the water and collects a tonne a month, which is sold for recycling into biodiesel. The system also reduces the amount and cost of effluent produced by the site.
The Pennine Foods site in Sheffield also recovers fats and oils. Rape seed oil, after use in deep-fat frying, is sold for biodiesel. Duck fat and waste food is treated (rendered) and used as a component to make fertiliser which can be used in agriculture.
