When I walked in I just took it all in and was amazed at what a tornado could do. Once the firefighters let us go in to certain areas, we started moving product into a dry area. We were spending 18 hours a day there to secure what we could. I really appreciate all who came out to help. It was so needed. To see everyone work together was awesome.
Waste & Sustainability Wave Team Update by Steve Zera, Randy Reuter, Scott Storey & Emily Smith Our efforts to enhance our sustainability (recycle) program are going well. We continue to look for new opportuni- ties to minimize the amount of waste we send to the landfill and recycle or reuse what we typically consider gar- bage. The goal is to eliminate as much of the cost as possible of sending this material to the landfill, and instead recover revenue by selling this material for reuse, to recyclers. Most are aware of our cardboard and office paper programs. We’ve been recycling cardboard for over 20 years and office paper for the past 2-3 years. Most don’t realize that we generate as much as 200 tons of cardboard a month and 1-2 tons of office paper. Recently, we added paperboard (cartons) to our list of recyclable items. These are being mixed with our cardboard, so there’s no change to our procedure. It can all go into the same containers. It’s difficult to determine the amount, but we’re estimating 2-3 tons a month. We continue to collect and recycle stretch film, not a big money maker, but a big deal knowing it’s not going into the ground. One of the most significant, recent changes is our ability to recycle empty paper ingredient bags. Until recently, these items were not acceptable for recycle because of the poly liner inside the bag. Technology has come up with a way to separate the two, creating a huge opportunity for us. We are now recycling a total of 5000# per day of empty ingredient bags, (that’s over 600 tons a year). Fifteen hundred pounds is from the Ing. Div. and 3500 pounds from the Mix Facility. As a result, we’ve converted the Mix Facility garbage chute and compactor to a recycle only system for cardboard and bags. What’s new for us? Some of you already know that we’re trialing a product recovery program on lines 15-21 as well as QA post-testing product waste recovery. We send a lot of powder to the landfill as a result of leakers, over/under weight, seals, flaps, overflow tubs, changeover cleaning, and the list goes on. We also collect full totes of powder from our dust collection systems. We’re working with a company that separates and recovers the product for use in animal feed and other by-products. The sobering facts are that we generate approximately 350 tons (700,000 lbs.) of powder from dust collection each year, and based on our production recovery trial and projections plant wide, we can expect to generate 2000 tons of
powder a year, that’s 4 million pounds! That’s 133 days a year that we wouldn’t send garbage to the landfill at all! Again, these are all assumptions made based on a one month trial in one area of the plant. The reality is that we generate too much product waste for many reasons, all of which create huge opportunities for us to be better at what we do. In the meantime, we’ll con- tinue to look at new opportunities to minimize our waste output and to be as “Green” as possible.
October, November & December 2015 Crest Ink 17
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