One Iowa company processes hatchery and spent fowl waste on-site into a feed component that is used at the facility. A recent grant has expanded the project to include spent hens and roosters. Processing, fermenting and storing spent fowl for metered blending with hatchery waste and soybean meal will be tested.
Another Iowa company converts food residuals to animal feed, and a LAFAP loan enables the facility to accept a larger volume and variety of food residuals and products with higher packaging to feed ratios. Packaging is also recovered, and is used as fuel in the animal feed processing operation.
"Food processing is the second largest industry sector in Iowa. Since the industry is so competitive, processors use as much of the waste as possible on-site. Rendering facilities at hog processing plants use by-products for feed, for instance," says Julie Nelson. "But there is still a lot of potential to help food processors with their contaminated cardboard, paper waste, wood, and plastic. There are also opportunities to connect companies that can't use the waste on site with those that can. One large Iowa company was giving away their corn byproducts until they were hooked up with a feed company. Now both companies are benefiting."
On-site visits with food processors have shown the WRAP team that significant cost savings for this industry can also be accomplished through reduction in utility use and better management of wastewater. "It's not unusual to find water treatment problems because of the fat and grease that goes down the drain. I once saw a video that showed employees jumping up and down on whole, plucked chickens, to try to get them down the drain," Nelson says. "We encourage companies to use dry cleanup practices that reduce biological oxygen demand and its associated water treatment surcharges, which can be fairly high. The wastes that result from dry cleanup can often be recycled."
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