Solid Waste Target
- 10% reduction over fiscal 2008 (normalized) by fiscal 2016
Progress To Date
- Reduced normalized materials to landfill by 12%
Waste management costs are increasing around the world, and landfill space is becoming increasingly scarce. Our major customers are showing growing concern about packaging and are beginning to request that we inform them about our environmental standards related to waste management. Our waste management strategy is to divert materials with a residual value from our waste streams for recycling or reuse. We believe we can make the greatest progress in our solid waste reduction and recycling efforts by focusing on packaging waste, such as corrugated board and a variety of plastics. We have greater control over the packaging value chain and are encouraged by successful cardboard reduction projects.
Overall waste generation has increased since 2005, primarily due to the acquisition of new facilities and improved reporting. Nevertheless, we have reduced solid waste generation per 100 pounds of product by 12 percent since 2008. Although we have already surpassed our target, we will continue to push for greater efficiencies.
The reduction in waste to landfill was driven by projects such as one at our North Side Foods facility in Arnold, Pennsylvania. Plant operators made arrangements with a commercial digester that could convert sludge to biogas, instead of costly landfilling. This alternative method turns a waste into electricity, lowers disposal cost by 25 percent, and saves the plant $100,000 annually. We are also making efforts to recycle more materials, and use packaging with post-consumer recycled materials.
[Solid Waste to Landfill (lbs/cwt) Chart, 2016 Goal: 2.18]
All values reported by fiscal year. Data do not include Murphy-Brown. Solid waste is typically hauled away for a fixed fee; reliable weights are not available.
Cardboard Recycling
Our recycling rate has declined 47 percent since 2007, as we have turned our focus from recycling to source reduction. This company-wide effort to reuse or discontinue the use of cardboard totes to transfer product between and within plants has put our recycling rate at its lowest since we started tracking it, despite increased production over the past five years. Instead of disposing of each cardboard tote after it is used initially, we now inspect each one and, whenever possible, place a new plastic liner inside. This allows us to reuse each one up to five times before recycling it, reducing costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars and diverting tons of cardboard from landfills. In 2011, Smithfield Packing’s plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, replaced cardboard boxes for internal transportation with reusable plastic totes, eliminating roughly 2 million pounds of corrugated material per year.
We expect cardboard recycling rates to continue to fall as we implement packaging design improvements and expand our waste prevention projects. (Office paper, cardboard, aluminum, and, in some cases, plastic soda bottles are recycled at our offices, but amounts are not tracked.)
[Cardboard Recycling (tons in thousands) Chart, 07-11 Change: -47%]
All values reported by fiscal year.
LEARN MORE Our Packaging Reduction Efforts
Recycled Inputs
On average, the corrugated cardboard used in our packaging contains about 38 percent recycled content. This is considered the standard level in the fiber industry. We are looking into incorporating more recycled materials into our final products; however, our options are limited to materials that ensure our products stay fresh during transportation, refrigeration, and handling. In addition, any packaging that directly touches food must meet federal regulatory requirements and our packages must meet certain specifications to allow for temperature fluctuations and high humidity. (Recycled fiber packaging, for example, does not perform well in such conditions.) Moreover, for our fresh meats, our packaging must be able to accommodate variations in the size, shape, and weight of each cut of meat. As a result, the vast majority of these inputs come from virgin material. We continue looking for ways to incorporate more packaging materials that have higher recycled content.
Our Packaging Reduction Efforts
The packaging that surrounds our products is critical to ensuring food quality and safety. It offers protection during transit, extends shelf life, and communicates important nutrition and safe handling information to consumers. The packaging is literally the face of our products, and we take every opportunity to improve it.
Because we offer so many types of products, Smithfield uses a wide variety of materials when packaging our foods, including resin-based plastics such as clear film and bags for sealing meats and corrugated cardboard boxes for shipments. Other packaging items include foam trays, plastic boxes, absorbent liners, folding cartons, zipper bags, plastic tubs and lids, and rigid plastic trays.
Like many large food companies, we acknowledge that our packaging practices could improve. There are still significant opportunities for us and for our packaging suppliers. In recent years, our IOCs have introduced a host of changes, large and small, to reduce material usage and post-consumer waste, save money, and improve transportation efficiencies. We have worked with our cardboard supplier to introduce mechanically assembled boxes to our production process. This decreases the amount of cardboard used, saves money, reduces our carbon footprint, and improves shipping efficiency. (With smaller packages, truck space can be utilized more efficiently, thus reducing the number of deliveries.) The mechanically assembled boxes should also reduce the number of repetitive motion injuries for our employees.
We have also expanded our use of resealable or reusable packaging. Recycled materials can be utilized in some packaging types, but food-safety and quality considerations must be met first. Many of the packaging changes have been and/or will be replicated across our operations whenever possible.
Some examples of recent efforts include the following:
- Farmland Foods in Milan, Missouri, removed a divider from export boxes, saving 1.3 million square feet of cardboard a year while cutting costs by $91,000.
- Our John Morrell processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, invested in a new bagging system that “right sizes” packaging to the specific product, significantly reducing the amount of material required. This eliminated plastic waste to landfill and resulted in $370,000 in annual savings.
- John Morrell and Armour-Eckrich replaced an oversized rectangular package for smoked sausage with crescent-style packaging. The new contoured design reduces plastic film and corrugated cardboard use by over 840,000 pounds per year.
- Farmland Foods in Martin City, Missouri, reduced the amount of corrugated packaging material it uses by more than 22 percent using mechanically assembled boxes. These boxes are as strong as those erected by hand but use less wood fiber. This improved shipping efficiency and saved the facility $1.1 million in 2010.
- Smithfield Packing adopted an innovative material-saving design for its corrugated boxes, reducing fiber by at least 17 percent. Less material is required and more packages fit on a truck, reducing fuel usage and associated air emissions. This eliminates over 1,000 tons of corrugated material each year and reduces fuel usage by roughly 63,000 gallons.
- Our Armour-Ekrich plant in Mason City, Iowa, resized the corrugated boxes it uses for packaging. The reduced box size improved stability and created shipping efficiencies. This will keep over 105,000 pounds of cardboard out of landfills each year.
Recycling Paying Dividends at Circle Four Farms
In 2008, Murphy-Brown’s Circle Four Farms discovered that significant amounts of its valuable recyclables were going to local landfills. To counter this, staff developed an enhanced recycling program for all production farms and administrative offices focused on materials that would generate income. In addition to increasing recycling rates, this project has also raised employee awareness; many employees actively participate. For example, as environmental technicians conduct monthly facility inspections, they collect recyclables and deliver them to designated locations. Contractors can also take recyclables to the designated areas as they complete projects. Farm personnel gather the recyclables and stockpile them until they can be sold in bulk.
Since August 2008, Circle Four Farms facilities have sold the following volumes of recyclables:
- 100 percent of Circle Four Farms’ stainless steel waste (117,412 lbs): $92,445
- 95 percent of eligible pallets: $6,232
- 100 percent of scrap aluminum (2,510 lbs): $583
- 5,222 lbs of scrap electric motors: $279
- 800 lbs of Zinc Oxide Catalyst: $2,000
- 50 percent of the total paper waste (84 cubic yards). $0 (Paper recycling covered costs.)
This project has been implemented to a lesser degree by our operations in Yuma, Colorado, and is being considered for other sites throughout the Western Division of Murphy Brown.
