Cargill’s Hazleton Meat Plant Becomes Company's First Landfill-Free Facility
Garbage trucks no longer stop at the Cargill meat processing facility in Hazleton, Pa. That’s because the 225,000-square-foot plant sends nothing to landfills. In fact, on March 29, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based NSF International verified the facility's landfill-free status after a detailed review of documentation and a 3-day on-site audit, making it the company’s first plant to accrue this achievement.
Although some materials were already being recycled, in 2012 Cargill's Hazleton plant sent 1,500 tons of waste, including plastic, bio-solids, paper and other materials to local landfills. In mid-2013, employees at the facility began a stepped-up recycling effort, and within five months reduced the amount of waste materials going to landfills by 280 tons, while saving the company $30,000. As an ongoing requirement for verification, the Hazleton facility will undergo annual reassessment audits.