Kraft Foods Cuts Manufacturing Waste 50% Since 2005

Kraft Foods – maker of brands like Maxwell House, Nabisco, and Oscar Mayer – has reduced its manufacturing waste 50 percent since 2005, according to a release.

The company says it’s finding better uses for waste and even turning manufacturing byproducts into new energy sources. In 2007, Kraft began working with global recycling company Sonoco Recycling with a goal of sending zero waste to landfills. 

Today, 36 Kraft Foods facilities have achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status, including 24 plants in Europe and 12 facilities in North America. Elsewhere, many plants have made significant reductions through partnerships to put waste to work. For instance:

China: Kraft Foods’ Shanghai plant has swapped many inbound shipping containers to reusable cartons, reducing the amount of carton waste by 25 percent – this allows 90 percent of containers to be reused. 

Indonesia: Kraft Foods plants in Cikarang and Karawang reduced their manufacturing waste nearly 40 percent in 2011. As most of their waste was from plastic packaging film, the plants found a third party to recycle it into new bags and buckets.

Russia: Kraft Foods’ Saint Petersburg coffee plant has reduced the amount of waste it sends to landfills by 90 percent.  Incoming coffee bean shipping bags and pallets are reused, and about 15,000 tons of spent coffee grounds are turned into fertilizer for area farms instead of being sent to landfills. 

South Africa: Employees at Kraft Foods’ Port Elizabeth plant have partnered with EnviroServ, a well-known waste management company, with the ultimate goal of sending zero waste to landfill. The plant now sends less than 10 percent of the waste it produces to landfill thanks to programs that turn waste into useful materials like animal feed.

In the U.S., Springfield, Mo. cheese plant employees were recently recognized for their commitment to sustainability and accomplishments in waste reduction by the state’s Ozarks GreenScore Gold-level ranking program – designed to educate and recognize area businesses and organizations as they adopt environmentally sustainable practices. Employees’ comprehensive recycling audit kick-started increased recycling across the plant and even identified materials to be re-used as an alternative fuel source. Together, they’ve eliminated about 400 tons of waste per year from scrap cheese, powders and packaging.

Kraft Foods’ Philadelphia cream cheese plant in Beaver Dam, Wisc. partnered with the city in 2010 and 2011 to build an anaerobic digester that turns whey waste – a regular byproduct of cheesemaking – into biogas that generates electricity for the local power grid. The digester eliminates the need for whey disposal. This reduces solid waste and improves wastewater quality, which is a win-win for the plant and the city. 

Bart King is a PR consultant and principal at Cleantech Communications.