RUGELEY, UNITED KINGDOM — Premier Nutrition, a premix supplier to the pet food and animal feed industries, announced July 23 it has reached its target goal of sending zero waste to landfill during its first recycling collection.

This goal was met by Premier Nutrition’s two sites in Rugeley and Fradley Park, which together supply nearly 50,000 metric tons of premix to manufacturers in the United Kingdom and abroad.

“Through recycling and composting over 46 tonnes of waste, the amount of carbon saved in a single month equates to taking one car off the road for a year and the lifespan of five planted trees,” said Bev Davies, operations administrator at Premier Nutrition.

The two Premier Nutrition facilities were chosen for zero-waste trials by the business’s parent company, AB Agri, as part of its environmental program.

Premier Nutrition was able to translate its waste to recycling and composting streams, including mixed production waste and office waste. Remaining waste deemed unrecyclable was sent to Ferry Bridge Power to be burned for fuel, the company reported.

“It’s an incredible achievement and I’m particularly proud that the target was met mid-lockdown, at a time when we were faced with additional health and safety pressures to allow the sites to continue to operate at full capacity,” Davies added.

She added that, even when all office-based staff are back working on-site, the company should be able to maintain its zero-waste initiative.

“This wasn’t an easy task as the two sites are receiving three or four big deliveries daily and employing around 80 people between them,” added Joe Stanley, continuous improvement lead for Premier Nutrition. “We also had to find a waste contractor – and Veolia came up trumps as a firm that was willing to work with us to find a home for 100% of the waste product. They have been brilliant in supporting us throughout the entire process.

“The diligence of everyone has been impressive. It’s involved changing habits and more thought – it’s no longer a case of all waste going into a single skip,” Stanley said. “It’s a credit to the teams at both facilities, demonstrating they have recognized and fully support the work that’s gone into the project and the color-coded waste bins, containers and skips are working really well.”

Read more about sustainability in the pet food and treat supply chain.