Challenge
A premier chocolate producer needed help with recycling its organic and inorganic waste at two of its largest facilities. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of the company’s chocolate production waste was being hauled off to a landfill at a significant cost. Additionally, the confectioner lacked an inorganic recycling program because high freight costs made it financially unfeasible. As a result, they received little to no value for their organic and inorganic waste streams.
Solution
Green Field Solutions audited the site and analyzed its chocolate scraps, ingredient bags and multiple other waste streams that the company was either landfilling or essentially giving away. By evaluating everything the chocolatier deemed waste, GFS was able to identify multiple valuable materials. For example, their landfilled chocolate could instead be used in sustainable animal feed as a source of energy. GFS also established the company’s first-ever recycling program, supplying both equipment and training, so that the company could actualize the real value of its general recycling materials.
Results
With a streamlined, one-stop solution for organic and inorganic waste, the chocolate producer is now able to put all of its waste material on one truck and mitigate the once stifling freight costs. And as is often the case, Green Field Solutions’ food waste management strategies not only delivered environmentally sustainable solutions, but also provided cost savings and revenue generation. In fact, the chocolatier was able to reduce its landfill waste by half and turn chocolate scraps and recyclables into new revenue streams.
Now, the chocolatier converts 750,000 pounds of food waste to animal feed per year and achieves costs savings/revenue generation of $150,000-$200,000 per year. Those are some sweet results!
