FP Green Plant of the Year 2024

Question Title

* THANK YOU for participating in Food Processing's Green Plant of the Year poll. Each of the nominated plants has submitted an essay to win your vote. Please read their self-descriptions below and vote for one. The winner will be profiled in our October issue.

KEYSTONE POTATO PRODUCTS (KPP) is a potato processing plant in Hegins, Pa., that produces a variety of fresh-cut potato products (fries, wedges, etc.), packages potatoes for retail sale, and produces potato flakes and flour from off-grade potatoes that would normally be sent to landfill or agriculture land application. KPP’s “green” initiatives include:
● The plant uses methane gas from the neighboring landfill to power a boiler that supplies steam, hot water, hot air and heat.
● Our water is sourced from an abandoned underground coal mine. The water is impaired with iron and manganese from the former mining operation. We operate a municipal water treatment plant on-site to remove iron, manganese and organic matter, and then use the water for drinking, food processing and making steam.
● Our on-site wastewater treatment plant uses anaerobic digestors to remove starch and organic matter, and treated water is released into the local watershed. Ultimately, we clean impaired mining water that would otherwise degrade the environment, use it to process food, then treat it again before discharging it.
● Pennsylvania cattle farmers use all our peel, bin and mash processing waste to feed beef cattle. We have zero potato byproducts going to the landfill any longer.

At PERDUE FARMS, we are committed to stewardship and being the most trusted name in food and agriculture products. Last fiscal year (April 2023 – March 2024), across the company, we diverted 96.8% of solid waste from landfills through the efforts of our associates, increased water usage intensity by 13.3% compared to the previous year and reduced greenhouse gas intensity by 3.6%. Perdue’s Washington, Indiana, turkey processing facility exemplifies the company’s strides in being responsible stewards of the environment. Recent achievements include:
● Completed a detailed sustainable operations assessment, which provided a line of sight into the steps we can take to make the facility more sustainable. The assessment serves as a blueprint at other Perdue facilities to improve our environmental footprint.
● Re-certified as a zero-waste processing facility by GreenCircle. The facility first received certification in 2022, making it the first U.S turkey processing facility and third Perdue facility to earn this important third-party environmental validation.
● The feed mill operation, which supports the processing facility, was also named a zero-waste facility following an extensive audit by GreenCircle.
● Recently, the facility committed to collecting and recycling all the trash after a community event as the April Solar Eclipse passed over Washington.

WEST LIBERTY FOODS is a leading producer of meat and poultry products. The company is committed to sustainability and environmental stewardship. In recent years, West Liberty Foods’ Tremonton, Utah, facility has implemented a number of initiatives to reduce its water usage, waste and chemical use:
● Tremonton has installed a two-line separation system to reduce water usage and chemical use. Tests showed a 95% reduction in chemicals and 90% better effluent test results. The system can produce 400K gallons of reuse water per week.
● Tremonton has also replaced hazardous chemicals in their cooling towers with Sustainable Moss, a natural water treatment solution. This eliminated the need for complicated hazardous chemicals and reduction energy control systems.
● Tremonton facility has been Certified by NSF Landfill free since 2013. We divert 99% of all waste from entering the landfill saving 2794.90 tons so far in just 2023.
● Tremonton has an environmental culture with all team members providing environmental training, adopting a highway program, encouraging participation in carpools, and inviting team members to participate in environmental core teams.
● Tremonton facility operations work to find efficiencies by installing VFD motors and completed a compressed air optimization project that had 256,777 annual kWh savings.