Kraft Completes Waste-to-Energy Projects at Two US Plants

Kraft Foods has completed waste-to-energy projects at cheese manufacturing facilities in Lowville and Campbell.

According to the company, the plants in Lowville and Campbell are using bio-methane from on-site waste treatment systems to replace 30-35% of each plant’s annual natural gas purchases in a year.

Whey, one of the most significant waste byproducts from cheese plants, is the source of the alternative energy, which is created when whey is treated in each plant’s anaerobic digester system. Both systems have been designed, built and operated for Kraft by Ecovation, now part of Ecolab.

According to Kraft, this project contributes to Kraft’s sustainability goals around energy, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions and waste reduction. The company has set goals to reduce energy usage by 25%, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions by 25% and manufacturing plant waste by 15% by the end of 2011.

Steve Yucknut, Kraft’s vice president of sustainability, said: “This is a time of opportunity for us. Our customers want to do business with partners who support sustainability. Consumers want to buy products from companies that ‘get it’ and employees want to work for companies that respect and preserve the world around them. So, we’ve increased our focus on sustainability because it’s the right thing to do and it makes good business sense.”