Garbage trucks no longer stop at the Cargill meat processing facility in Hazleton, Pa., because the 225,000-square-foot plant that sits on a 40-acre site, employs 600 people and produces more than 10 million pounds of beef, pork and ground meat products monthly, sends nothing to landfills. While NSF verifies that less than one percent of the plant's waste goes to landfills, Cargill's team at Hazleton has gone the remaining distance to completely eliminate all landfill waste. On March 29, 2015, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based NSF International verified the facility's landfill-free status after a detailed review of documentation and a three-day on-site audit, March 10-12, 2015.
Although some materials were already being recycled, in 2012 Cargill's Hazleton plant sent 1,500 tons of waste to local landfills, including plastic, bio-solids, paper and other materials. In mid-2013, employees at the facility began a stepped up recycling effort and within five months reduced the amount of waste materials going to landfills by 280 tons, while saving the company $30,000.