Nestlé confectionery plant hits zero waste goal four years ahead of target

21-Jul-2011 - Last updated on 22-Jul-2011 at 11:04 GMT

Nestlé’s UK confectionery factory has achieved its zero waste goal nearly four years ahead of its 2015 target, according to the firm.

The company said it has achieved a yearly saving of nearly £120,000 via the removal of landfill tax at its York-based site, which produces Kit Kat and Aero products.

The factory has also achieved a 70 per cent reduction in the number of skips it used to take waste from site to landfill.

The firm said it has also generated revenue by selling nearly 800 tonnes of recovered materials such as cardboard, plastics, metal, pallets and metallised film.

A spokesperson for Nestle told ConfectioneryNews.com the company’s collaboration with Yorwaste was a major contribution to factory’s zero landfill success.

Sustainability programme

The company said the achievement marked an important milestone within its sustainability programme, which in 2009, saw the firm setting a zero waste target for all 14 of its UK and Ireland factories by 2015.

To date, three of their production sites have been approved by by Bureau Veritas a head of this time goal.
In addition to Nestlé’s York site, the firm has achieved zero waste status at its Girvan site in Scotland and its Dalston site in Cumbria.

The spokesperson said there are other Nestlé sites are close to or already achieving the zero waste goal, although they have not yet been officially verified.

He said the verified units could now share knowledge with the other factories in how to achieve the 2015 target.
Recycling waste

At the firm’s Girvan site, the first Nestlé factory to hit the zero waste to landfill target, employees use techniques similar to those used in the home to separate waste into streams for recycling or reuse.

The waste wood generated by the site is crushed into chips and sold on to a local company which manufactures chipboard for use in kitchen counters, said Nestlé.

Product waste is processed for inclusion into feeds for farm animals within 50 miles of the factory.

Nestlé said metals, plastics, paper, cans and cardboard are processed by its contractor and traded as commodities. Any remaining material that does not currently have a viable recycle option is sent for incineration which then generates electricity.

The firm set an overall target to reduce waste-to-landfill in the UK and Ireland by 10 per cent by 2009, a target which was exceeded in this year with a 57 per cent reduction, according to Nestlé.