Kraft Slashes Waste, Boosts Recycling

Over the past four years, Kraft Foods employees reduced net waste from the company’s manufacturing plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels, exceeding a goal of a 15 percent reduction by 2011, the Northfield, Ill.-based food manufacturer reported.

Kraft said its employees are constantly raising the bar — improving efficiency and changing behavior, business practices and culture — and creating new partnerships to turn waste into something of value. “Employees took our aggressive waste reduction goal and ran with it,” said Steve Yucknut, VP of sustainability. “Not only did they meet our goal two years early, they simply crushed it by doubling our performance with a 30 percent reduction. Their enthusiasm has made a huge impact. In fact, we now recycle or reuse 90 percent of our manufacturing waste.”

In 2007, the company launched a program with the Hartsville, N.C.-based global packaging and recycling company Sonoco to substantially reduce waste in plants. Today, nine Kraft facilities have achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status: three Canadian plants, five U.S. plants and a U.S. distribution center. In Europe, most of the company’s plants are essentially net waste free, and elsewhere, many plants have made significant reductions through partnerships to put waste to work.

For more information on Kraft’s sustainability efforts, visit www.kraftfoodscompany.com/MediaCenter/country-press-releases/us/2010/Pages/multi_media_07072010.aspx.

With annual revenues of $48 billion, Kraft Foods is the world’s second largest food company, with a portfolio of brands that includes Oreo, Nabisco, Cadbury, Trident, Maxwell House, Philadelphia and Oscar Mayer.