West Liberty Foods’ plants landfill free

An Iowa meat processor has achieved 100 percent landfill-free status at all of its facilities.

West Liberty Foods is a 2,200-employee cooperative owned by growers that produces a variety of turkey, ham, chicken and beef products for restaurant chains and other food service customers.

The company, with operations in Iowa, Utah and Illinois, has eliminated nearly 120 million pounds of waste previously sent to local landfills, or approximately 5,000 garbage trucks of refuse.

West Liberty Foods and Liberty Cold, the company's manufacturing and cold storage facilities in Bolingbrook, Ill., achieved landfill-free status in April as independently verified by NSF International Strategic Registrations. NSF certifies products and writes standards for food, water and consumer goods.

West Liberty Foods developed and implemented a waste-reduction business plan, enabling its Tremonton, Utah, processing plant to become the company's first landfill-free facility in February 2012. By the end of 2012, two other West Liberty Foods operations in Mount Pleasant and West Liberty, Iowa, were certified landfill-free.

Michelle Boney, West Liberty Foods environmental, health and safety director, was the driving force in the transition to eliminating waste going to landfills. In a 2012 interview, Boney said commitment from the company's leadership and employee awareness were key to making the change.

'Our associates are making conscious decisions to recycle where possible at work and in their homes,” Boney said. 'They talked with the managers of local fast-food restaurants to eliminate packaging that could not be recycled.

'We also have had great support from our vendors, who were willing to do a trash sort with us. They decided what they could recycle, compost or burn as energy.”

Boney said employees followed garbage trucks from the Mount Pleasant plant to the landfill and sorted the trash to determine what could be recycled, composted or eliminated. After the plant and vendors made the transition, 56 percent of the waste is recycled and 46 percent is burned as fuel by a company that operates a cement kiln.

The resulting ash is used as filler in the cement.