Key Areas of Action

Increasing production comes usually with an increase in waste along the process. Following the principles of the waste hierarchy waste should be reduced in a first step. This can be realised by changing products and processes (avoidance), by re-using or recycling material or within the production process. Further, measures that support recycling like separate collection of waste should be implemented.  

An analysis of waste streams can help to identify opportunities to reduce waste. The source and amount of waste in a production process should be examined more detailed. In the case of a micro-dairy company (case study 45 "Waste prevention as a strategy for planning business expansion") a share of waste could be traced back to technical issues along the production line.

Innovative and efficient packaging can reduce waste streams. Using less packaging or more ecological packaging (case study371 "UK meat producer's waste-prevention campaign" & case study 4 "Fish manufacturer's no-waste approach") instead of plastic has a positive environmental impact as well as innovative packaging ensuring long lasting products. A food manufacturer (case study 248 "Reusable materials tackle waste in food production") changed from small to large reusable volume containers, reducing packaging material and food waste.

Impacts and benefits

Monitoring general and specific waste, or recycling processes, can identify wasteful practices and opportunities for waste prevention, generating cost savings for both purchasing and disposal expenses.

A waste audit was, for example, issued in a micro-dairy company to identify resource efficiency opportunities, especially in food waste prevention. Because of the broad scope of the audit, the micro-dairy became aware of regular spoilage occurring in the cheese maturation room due to the poor climate control leading to losses of around 7,4% of annual cheese production, or around 3.200 EUR in lost revenue. It was proposed that a new temperature and humidity control unit would reduce spoilage by at least 80%.

With the help of an energy auditor, a French SME was able to identify and monitor all waste flows and related quantities, costs and sources. Special measures included installing printers in central locations to discourage printing (staff had to walk further to the printers), and code-protecting copiers to reduce thoughtless photocopying and longer print jobs. The initiative proved successful, helping the company reduce paper use by 16% and increase the number of reusable filters installed by 27%.

Technical aspects and implementation

The type of measures and implementation in the field of waste reduction depend largely on the type of the business or organisation and their input materials.

Starting points for intervention are areas in which companies make decisions that influence the amount of waste produced such as procurement, product design or business models. Clear responsibilities and guidelines can help to institutionalise better practices and promote waste reduction. Engaging employees is especially important when it comes to reducing resources within administrative processes such as reducing paper and printing in offices. Evaluating production processes can help to reduce waste emerging due to technological failures or by changing packaging size and material. The focus here is more on a technological side.

As more and more consumers consider the green factor in their purchasing decisions, companies are under pressure to find more effective ways to reduce their environmental footprint. Recycling materials and reusing resources are business models.

There are several possibilities for reusing and creating new value streams of organic waste, it can be composted (case study "Composting by Canadian restaurant radically cuts landfill") processed to animal feed or biogas (case study 52 "Converting distillery waste into a product and energy"). More specific examples how organic waste is used as a secondary resource is the case of a jam manufacturer where prune pits are used for cosmetic oil production (case study 162 "Material savings by reusing prune waste") or in the case of an agricultural producer who uses coffee grounds for growing mushrooms (case study 2 "Reusing coffee grounds to produce vegetables and compost").

Impacts and benefits

Several companies have shown to find innovative solutions to use their produced waste and overhaul their waste management completely, resulting in financial savings from higher resource efficiency and less waste disposal fees, monetary benefits from creating new value streams and reduced Co2 emissions.

For example, an international food-processing company has been working to reduce material losses at source and during manufacturing. Despite existing recycling and sorting channels, an unacceptable level of mixing (plastic and cardboard) was observed. The company reorganised its waste flows, separating them more effectively with the introduction of appropriate channels. It also introduced an awareness campaign aimed at staff, which coupled with the introduction of a simpler system of waste-separation bins around the site and compacting facilities for recoverable waste, delivered considerable benefits. These improvement measures generate savings of around 6.000 EUR per year, including sales of reusable waste and lowered cost of treating mixed waste.

The world’s largest spirit manufacturer integrated waste-to-energy technology in a form of anaerobic digesters (AD), also known as biogas plants. In the UK, the company redirects about 130.000 tonnes of 'spent wash' - a mixture of spent grain that is used as a feedstock - to AD for generating renewable energy. This new technology and approach to waste saves on transport costs, reduces landfill and supplies 80 % of the electricity and 98 % of the thermal steam needed in the distillery. Altogether, these measures reduce annual CO2 equivalent emissions by 56 000 tonnes.

Waste can be a huge cost factor. Thus, identifying gaps and problem areas waste-management reviews can unlocks potentially large savings.

The core goal of a waste-management system is to think of ways to improve a company's handling of non-product outputs (waste with zero or negative market value), and implement measures to minimise waste generation through more efficient use of resources or re-use of materials and to separate waste for recycling.  It helps to understand where resources are used, where waste is generated, and to find and prioritise waste-reducing and resource-saving opportunities.  A collective approach  of managing waste can be taken (case study 310 "Collective waste management at industrial park in France").

Impacts and benefits

Reducing, reusing and recycling of waste streams can directly reduce expenses related to waste disposal and have a positive environmental impact. Avoiding amounts of waste being incinerated or going to landfill allow for a reduction of land use conflicts and greenhouse gas emissions (methane from landfill and CO2 form incineration).

Potential economic benefits include benefits from the sale of separated waste material to other enterprises or on the free market, and from the reduction of raw material needed for a given process. Waste streams, or streams of by- or co-products, can also be exchanged in the framework of an industrial symbiosis system which can be local to the same industrial estate but can also be performed at a longer, regional scale.

An industrial park in France (case study 310 "Collective waste management at industrial park in France") managed to generate significant cost savings on general rubbish disposal, as well on paper and cardboard, garage waste, green and garden waste, organic materials, and on effluent. By pooling waste management and tackling it collectively, the companies that were active on the industrial park have shown to reduce costs associated with rubbish disposal by 36%, to cut effluent costs by 42% and to generate savings on garden waste up to 72%.

Technical aspects and implementation

A waste-management system, usually put in place by SMEs during development of a broader environmental management system, calls for a systematic monitoring, planning and improvement programme covering a company's whole production chain. This typically involves creating a flow diagram or chart to visualise the enterprise’s input and output material quantities which, in turn, helps to identify waste sources and makes measuring waste quantities possible.

Self-assessment can help a company to review its waste-management. Through no- or low-cost measures, a company can identify where waste is arising at each stage of a process and take steps to reduce it. This will boost environmental performance, reduce carbon footprint and help to build brand value.

SMEs can follow readily available methodologies and templates for designing a waste prevention plan provided by different organisations and government agencies. Key actions include:

• Mapping out the processes - Start by trying to map out the information gathered during walk-around tours aimed at observing the company’s processes and practices, and use the data to create a mass balance process flow chart that identifies all the inputs and outputs, solid, liquid and gaseous, where they occur, and how to measure them. From the process flow chart, a company should be able to create a waste-tracking sheet for each individual step.
• Setting the benchmarks - Once a company has compiled a waste list, it can use the data to gauge performance relative to other businesses and set realistic targets for improvement. It can also set key performance indicators (KPIs) matching your company situation, e.g. water consumption in m³/tonne of product, total raw material used per tonne of product, etc.
• Making an action plan - Prioritise actions according to how much money they can save the company. Start by identifying obvious areas for waste reduction, where immediate and substantial savings are achievable. Calculate the true cost of all the waste streams. Record the starting position and publicise improvements. Ensure an action plan covers all relevant issues. Use waste hierarchy, waste-tracking sheets, and process flow diagrams to assist in identifying savings.

Food waste occurs on several segments of the value chain. Starting at the producer, i.e. the farmer level where non-usable food is sorted out and usually thrown away, in best case composted. Further along the value chain, food manufacturers, supermarkets and restaurants generate high amounts of food waste. Lastly, food waste occurs at the consumer and household level.

Food waste can be tackled in multiple ways. Restaurants for example can optimize portion sizes and optimise stock management (case study 42 "Efficient stock management and portion control reduce food waste" & case study 136 "Smart ordering in seafood restaurant" & case study 137 "Pub restaurant seeks savings with Sunday lunch service" & case study 138 "Reducing food waste takes all-in effort" & case study 142 "Balancing food waste and customer experience"). Several digital applications offer the possibility to re-distribute edible food leftovers from e.g., supermarkets or restaurants (case study 30 "Surplus food redistribution"). Furthermore, innovative packaging can prolong the lifespan of food products, reducing food waste.

New business models for edible food reduces food waste and adds value what otherwise would be wasted. Farmers often have surpluses or damaged fruit which cannot be sold as it is. Using that for making juice (case study 73 "SME drinks company identifies market for leftover fruit") or syrup (case study  "Adding value to surplus soft fruits on the farm") adds new value to it. Bread leftovers in restaurants or supermarkets can be used for making or even for beer making (case study 51 "The future of food waste").

Impacts and benefits

Food waste comes with waste disposal fees, and includes sunk costs such labour, water and energy.  Food furthermore has high opportunity costs since there are many ways of reusing food waste by integrating new business models in businesses. Implementing measures and investing in innovative technologies to reduce food waste can generate significant commercial and environmental benefits.

In the case studies, several measures and new technologies have been implemented and shown to be quite successful in reducing food waste. A strawberry producer, for example, which had an up to 50% loss of total harvest, due to weather, mishandling, deformation or surplus, started to convert surplus strawberries into high-value fruit syrups. This transformed this loss-making resource into a product delivering a net profit of over 224.100 EUR per year. Syrups are used as an ingredient in fruit drinks, sodas, and cocktails as well as a syrup/flavouring for coffee, sauces, desserts, and ice-creams.

Companies, charities, and individuals can all benefit from the redistribution of surplus food. Communicating the benefits of the organisation’s redistribution activities among staff, customers and suppliers is generally seen as positive.

Technical aspects and implementation

In order to tackle a food waste problem hands on, it is advised to monitor, calculate and analyse the waste in order to identify hotspots and take action. There are existing toolkits and systems that can help a company in this process. These include: reviewing the amount of food thrown away, immediately putting in place an action plan, introducing house policy changes and develop good practices.

Several digital and smart technology-based applications and solutions to reduce food waste in restaurants have been developed. An example of such web-based applications is the Waste Master (Hävikkimestari) system for tracking and minimising food waste and coaching services. The web application is designed for and with restaurant personnel. The application breaks down the data into highly visual and easy to read formats which the restaurant team can review in search of opportunities to improve processes in line with Lean working methods.

Waste in the brewing industry can be created at numerous stages of the malting processing. Useful materials may be lost through poorly designed equipment and ingredient handling.

A brewery can adopt several practices to reduce the volume and cost of waste at its processing plants, thus generating cost savings, improving competitiveness, and producing environmental benefits.

Impacts and benefits

The impact of implementing sustainability measures and innovative technologies to improve resource efficiency in the brewery sector is significant. A Scottish brewery that produces over 300.000 litres of beer each year introduced an efficiency audit that identified opportunities for reducing waste in the cask-filling process (Good practice 173 “Brewery cuts beer waste on Scottish island”) which generated annual savings of more over 11.000 EUR and reduced carbon emissions by 21 tonnes per year.

Another company modified its 'rejection system' which discards impurities and started selling rejected malt for animal feed (Good practice 191 “Modifying malt processes”) rather than paying for the waste to be removed for energy recovery alone. By making these adjustments, the company managed to divert 263 tonnes of waste and save about 230.000 EUR per annum. 

Lightweight glass containers can also offer commercial benefits for manufacturers, retailers, and brand owners. An international beer company (Good practice 194 “Lightweight glass containers in brewery”) launched a lightweight version of its 300 ml bottle with a 13% weight reduction. This measure saved 4.500 tonnes of glass each year. The new, lighter bottles also led to cheaper transportation costs and environmental benefits.

Technical aspects and implementation

A brewery's management might decide to tackle inefficiency issues to increase profitability by looking closely at its costs and focusing on high-quality production, local specialties and the environment. Following a life cycle assessment (LCA), which considered the range of environmental impacts on consumers throughout the life of the product, a series of measures, targeted at specific goals, can be introduced. These measures are diverse and depend largely on the type, the scale, and the commercial and environmental goals of the company.

An example could be to exclude fermentation by-products (Good practice 20 “Environmental and economic effects in beer production using clean production methodology”) (nitrates, fat, cholesterol, nitrites, and caffeine) from its products. This also had a positive effect on heat-saving which can save, for a medium sized brewery, around 3.000 GJ annually.

An international brewery, for example, invested in a polymer heat exchanger (Good practice 289 “Carlsberg, (probably) the best heat-recovering brewery in the world”). The polymer heat-exchanger preheats cold combustion air using the waste heat from the corrosive flue gas after the economizer. Similar applications can be found in the sugar, potato, and paper industries. The energy saving is approximately 300 kW at full load and the implementation has increased the boiler efficiency with 3,5%, resulting in a CO2 emission reduction of 600 tonnes per year.