Crystal Creamery’s Modesto, Calif., headquarters processing facility received EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge National Innovation Award for improving its sustainable food management practices. Crystal Creamery aims to achieve zero waste by 2020, and currently diverts over 98% of materials from landfills through re-use, recycling, composting and anaerobic digestion.

Crystal Creamery partnered with Fiscalini Farms, Modesto, Calif., to process its wastewater byproduct along with manure and other dairy byproducts into electricity. Fiscalini Farms’ state-of-the-art anaerobic digester facility uses bacteria to break down manure and dairy byproducts into methane biogas to generate renewable energy, fertilizer and bedding for livestock at local farms. The anaerobic digesters, operated by Organic Solution Management LLC, Indianapolis, Ind., can process and compost 200 tons per day of waste and produce 1 megawatt.