Perdue Farms announced that its food-producing facility in Washington, Indiana has earned GreenCircle Zero Waste to Landfill certification, making it the first U.S. turkey processing facility and third Perdue facility to earn the third-party environmental validation. During the audit period between May 2021 to April 2022, GreenCircle validated that the Indiana operation diverted 100% of its waste from going to landfills starting in January of 2022, and kept nearly 155 million pounds from landfills during the total audit period.

GreenCircle completed extensive audits and assessments of all waste streams at the facility, including hazardous and non-hazardous materials, inspection of all waste receptacles, and assessment of all third-party waste management companies to confirm management methods and diversion rates. Every aspect of the operations’ waste was assessed, including the personal protective equipment worn by associates, the process used to minimize contamination of the cardboard recycling stream, and the beneficial reuse of cardboard, paper, and feathers, as a few examples.

“The certification of our Indiana operation reflects the effort behind achieving our company’s vision to be the most trusted name in food and agricultural products, and our commitment to being good stewards of our environment,” said Drew Getty, vice president of environmental sustainability and government relations for Perdue Farms. “We continue working to expand our zero waste to landfill efforts to additional operations, and our progress to reduce our environmental impact in our operations represents our company’s holistic approach to responsible and sustainable practices.”

Perdue’s Lewiston, NC facility became the first U.S. poultry company to earn GreenCircle certification in 2020, and its Petaluma, CA operation earned the certification in 2021.

“This achievement required an enormous collective effort from our team here, and we are tremendously proud to contribute to the company’s overall goals to reduce our environmental impact,” said Brandon Bottorff, director of operations at Perdue’s Washington, IN facility. “The GreenCircle team’s expertise helped us solidify best practices and processes for achieving our goals as well as continuous improvement.”

“Perdue’s pursuit of their waste diversion goals demonstrates that transparency and continuous improvement are essential to the way they do business,” said Michelle Bonanno, director of operations at GreenCircle. “Our Zero Waste to Landfill certification requires absolute commitment to waste diversion and waste minimization. In order to earn our certification, companies must divert 100 percent of their waste from landfill. The goal of our certification is to help companies understand the reality of their waste minimization and zero waste programs. That information enables them to minimize waste, manage materials to reduce their environmental impact, and achieve their environmental stewardship goals.”

In 2018, Perdue Farms established aggressive five-year environmental sustainability goals, including improving its solid waste diversion from landfills by 90 percent by 2023. Today, the company has diverted more than 94 percent of solid waste from landfills, as shared in Perdue’s FY22 Stewardship Report. 

To learn more about the company’s progress in environmental sustainability, click here.

Source: Perdue Farms