The United Nations has designated September 29th, as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. It’s just one day – but it inspired us to look at what we currently do, and challenged us to ask what we can do differently? We want to extend the question to you as well.

To help you and your organization, we want provide a little background about us. There are some helpful links available in this piece too.

Prior to becoming a Certified B. Corp, we already had an initiative to reduce waste and scrap which was driven by efficiency and dollar loss. It became a natural fit for us to articulate reducing waste and scrap internally to our team that we are not only helping the company, but are also helping the environment. Additionally, in order to maintain our certification, we are constantly looking at ways to further improve.

We currently take significant steps to reduce the amount of by-product destined for landfills. We invest in equipment and technology to accomplish this in the most efficient ways possible. We re-purpose our scrap into animal feed and biofuels. Over the past year our company has:

• recycled all of our food scrap into animal feed (food scrap is natural in the process of starting up the production line and dialing in the product to meet specification).
• converted more than 3.1 million pounds of wet corn sludge into fertilizer and mulch.

The onset of COVID-19 has changed the consumer buying pattern and increased the purchases of certain household goods and food. While the pantry loading may be subsiding, an unfortunate result may also be an increase in consumer household food waste. If food is wasted, the water and energy used to create that food also goes to waste.

Each of us can benefit from smart choices in buying and storing our packaged and fresh foods. Simple things like checking code dates every week and optimizing the temperature of your refrigerator can go a long way. Get creative and explore new recipes if you find yourself with odd things left in your kitchen. Each individual family can create its own protocols. The World Economic Forum has come up with some great tip found here.

We want to continue to challenge ourselves and others to look at things differently to reduce waste. We want you to join us, and to ask yourself, what can you do differently?

*** Wyandot made the decision, in May 2022, to allow our B Corp. certification to expire. While we no longer are a Certified B Corporation and carry the B Corp. banner, we still have and will uphold the principles of a socially and environmentally responsible company, as we did prior to receiving certification.