The UK company manufactures and supplies premix and supplement products to feed and pet food manufacturing customers in the UK and globally. Using over 700 raw ingredients, Premier Nutrition manufactures nearly 2,000 different premix formulations, dispatched to 36 countries.
The recycling achievement spans the firm’s two Staffordshire sites that collectively supply around 50,000 tons of feed premix.
“Through recycling and composting over 46 tons of waste, the amount of carbon saved in a single month equates to taking one car off the road for a year and the lifespan of five planted trees,” said Bev Davies, who is responsible for health, safety and environmental administration at Premier Nutrition.
“It’s an incredible achievement and I’m particularly proud that the target was met mid-lockdown, at a time when we were faced with additional health and safety pressures to allow the sites to continue to operate at full capacity,” she added.
Waste that is now recycled or sent for composting includes mixed production and office waste.
Anything that cannot be recycled or composted goes to Ferry Bridge Power station to be burnt for fuel, said the animal nutrition business.
Kickstarting the process
The two Premier Nutrition sites in question were selected for trials as part of the environmental program of its parent company, AB Agri.
Joe Stanley, Premier Nutrition’s continuous improvement lead, explained that the waste recycling process started with a complex waste mapping exercise to quantify exactly how much and what types of waste were being generated.
“This wasn’t an easy task as the two sites are receiving three or four big deliveries daily and employing around 80 people between them. We also had to find a waste contractor.”
Veolia supported the UK premix producer in that respect.
Davies said she is confident they can maintain the 100% recycled record, even when all the office-based staff are back on the premises.
“It has involved changing habits and more thought – it’s no longer of case of all waste going into a single skip. It’s a credit to the teams at both facilities, demonstrating they have recognized and fully support the work that’s gone into the project and the color-coded waste bins, containers and skips are working really well,” added Stanley.