Oklahoma City Purina Manufacturing Facility Achieves Zero Waste to Landfill Status
All Purina Factories to Achieve Zero Waste to Landfill Status by 2020
OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 22, 2017 – Nestlé Purina today announced that its Oklahoma City manufacturing facility, which produces popular pet food and treat brands such as Purina® Beyond®, Friskies®, Purina® Pro Plan® and Beneful®, has achieved zero waste to landfill status. The Oklahoma City facility, which employs approximately 350 people, is Nestlé Purina’s seventh location to achieve this significant milestone that supports Nestlé’s global commitment to be landfill-free by 2020.
“We’re particularly proud of our employees in Oklahoma City for the passion and support they have demonstrated to make this possible,” says John Bear, Vice President, Product Supply. “Purina’s culture inspires doing the right thing, which includes good environmental practices. We introduce the most efficient technologies and apply best practices to not only minimize waste, but also to optimize energy and water consumption.”
Reducing waste is a critical part of Purina’s sustainability roadmap, which identifies how the Company can best add value for the environment and society to make the biggest positive influence. Work continues at other Purina facilities, including offices and distribution centers, across North America to meet the global commitment to achieve zero waste to landfill status by 2020, or sooner. To date, 35 percent of Nestlé Purina factories have met the goal ahead of schedule.
“Our staff here in Oklahoma City has enthusiastically embraced continuous improvement in all that we do, including reducing waste,” says Kris Bilbrey, Facility Manager. “Our associates want to do the right thing – they see and realize that the benefits of being landfill-free not only benefits the factory, but it also impacts the community.”
Nestlé Purina’s measures to reduce waste to landfill focus on three key areas: employee engagement; improving processes to minimize generation of waste; and partnerships with credible vendors for composting, recycling, energy recovery, and other forms of beneficial use, in line with Nestlé’s environmental sustainability guidelines and standards. All of Purina’s factories also have externally verified environmental management systems through ISO 14001 certification.
Under Nestlé global standards, to achieve zero waste to landfill status a facility’s discarded materials are directed to destinations that specialize in recovering the ecological and/or economic value of the material. In Oklahoma City, vendor partners include Covanta, a world leader in providing sustainable waste and energy solutions (Tulsa); Republic Services, an industry leader in U.S. recycling and non-hazardous solid waste; and Minick Materials, the leading commercial composter in the state of Oklahoma.
“We are proud to work with partners like Nestlé Purina and do our part in being stewards of this great land,” Jason Huffacker, Minick Materials.
Purina’s “war on waste” began in 2010, and since then the company has reduced waste to landfills at manufacturing facilities in North America by 38 percent.
Purina’s seven landfill-free factories add to the growing number of Nestlé factories in the U.S. to achieve zero waste to landfill status. More information about Purina’s sustainability efforts can be found at www.purina.com/sustainability.
For further information: Tiffany Gildehaus at Nestlé Purina
Tiffany.gildehaus@purina.nestle.com