McKee plant cuts waste

GENTRY — Dumpster diving is not a normal activity at McKee Foods, but it helped keep the Gentry facility from sending anything to the landfill.

The local maker of Little Debbie and Sunbelt snacks recently celebrated becoming a zero landfill facility, meaning the company found other ways to dispose of waste, such as recycling. The company no longer has any large trash bins on the property.

Companies have their own reasons for adopting waste reduction practices, and for McKee it fits into the company’s guiding values that include responsibility, integrity and innovation. It can also save a business money.

“We were able to do this in a cost-neutral way,” said Tim Broughton, vice president of the Gentry operation. Jim Twiggs, McKee Foods’ local green team leader, said his team took a few months to figure out what was being thrown into the trash bins. He said two companies were hired to sift through the trash and came back with almost identical reports.

“About 65 percent of the items in the compactor could have been recycled. That became our first goal,” he said.

Broughton said just four years ago, almost 1,000 tons of waste were thrown into the trash bins annually. In Little Debbie treats, that would equal about four oatmeal creme pies for every Arkansan. If those boxes were lined end-to-end, they would stretch from the Gentry facility to Fort Smith and back.

McKee said it used the three Rs philosophy - reduce, reuse and recycle - in eliminating its waste stream.

“We also have a fourth R: rethink,” Twiggs said.

Broughton said they have always recycled at the plant, but the idea to stop the waste stream kicked into high gear about four years ago.

“When the idea of sustainability came around, it really grabbed us,” Twiggs said.

McKee’s green team started with five members. It has grown and now all 1,300 employees do their part to be sustainable.

“Many employees ask, ‘What took you so long?’ They were ready,” he said.

Recycling and reducing waste are not new ideas, but many businesses are becoming more aggressive in the practices.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the WasteWise Program, in operation since 1994, said Deanna DeBose, the program’s regional coordinator.

The free and voluntary EPA program helps organizations reduce and recycle.

“People who are doing the right thing, trying to reduce waste, are inevitably driven to meet the goals they’ve set,” DeBose said. “Some set zero waste goals, some set goals to reduce waste, but the goals all involve mitigating the environmental impact.”

Louise Mann, founder of Waste Reduction Resources in Fayetteville, said businesses often start recycling with the “low-hanging fruit,” or items that are easily recyclable such as cardboard and aluminum cans.

“I think businesses are in some ways doing a better job today recycling than the residential customers,” she said.

Mann helped kick-start the McKee project following a chance meeting with Twiggs on a nightly neighborhood walk. Twiggs refers to Mann as the trash guru of Northwest Arkansas.

“She already invented the wheel, and she pointed us in the right direction,” he said.

That is what Mann said she does - connect people.

McKee is not the only local business to celebrate achieving zero landfill status recently. Rockline Industries, a wet wipe manufacturer in Springdale, hit that goal a couple months ago.

Joel Slank, Rockline’s Springdale general manager, said their achievement was part of a corporate initiative.

Slank said he began working with a consultant about two years ago and recognized the company needed a waste management strategy.

Rockline already had a recycling program in place and this latest initiative was just an expansion of that project, he said.

Officials with both companies point to Walmart as a source of inspiration.

Lee Scott, former Walmart president and chief executive officer, set a goal on Oct. 24, 2005, that the retailer would create zero waste.

Brooke Buchanan, Walmart spokeswoman, said the retailer is on track to meet its goal of all Walmart stores, Sam’s Clubs and distribution centers in the U.S. to be zero waste by 2025.

Walmart stores in Arkansas recycled more than 40,000 tons of food, cardboard, plastic and organics by summer’s end that would have otherwise gone to the landfill, Buchanan said.

The company is working on creating ways to achieve the zero waste goal in California stores where landfill waste was reduced by 80 percent last year.

Recycle Partners

Rockline recycles about 80 percent of its waste with the remaining 20 percent, mostly consisting of composite material, going to Covanta Energy in Tulsa, Okla., where it is converted from waste to energy.

McKee is recycling 97 percent of its waste, leaving just 3 percent it sends to Covanta.

“That last 3 percent has been a challenge,” Broughton said.

Twiggs said there are about a half-dozen items the company needs to operate that can’t be recycled, such as hairnets.

“That could change in the future as new products are developed,” Broughton said.

Twiggs said company employees are always on the lookout for recyclable products.

He used paper towels as an example where a slight change greatly reduced waste. Twiggs said about 650 employees work on the production line and wash their hands an average of 15 times a day.

“We were using white paper towels and going through thousands of rolls,” he said. “These towels were not recyclable and hand dryers weren’t going to work because of food industry regulations.”

The answer turned out to be a simple switch to brown paper towels, which are recyclable and cheaper, Twiggs said.

Sometimes all it takes is a couple calls to suppliers, but sometimes other help is needed.

“I probably called Marck Recycling about 50 times to ask if something could be recycled,” he said.

Marck Recycling is headquartered in Cassville, Mo., and has a Rogers facility.

Kent Longley, president of the recycling company, said he and his employees do a lot of research and phone calling to learn about the recycle potential of products.

Marck Recycling works with both McKee and Rockline.

Longley said he pays the companies for their recyclable goods, then turns around and sells them.

Items that Longley can’t recycle end up at the Tulsa Covanta plant. The companies pay Covanta to take their non-recyclable goods and turn them into energy.

Broughton said McKee pays extra to have a secure contract with Covanta that certifies nothing the company takes to Tulsa will end up in a landfill.

James Regan, Covanta spokesman, said the company’s main customers are municipalities and counties, but manufacturers and customers like McKee are a bonus.

The Tulsa, Okla., facility began commercial operation in October 1986 and was Covanta’s first energy-fromwaste project. The plant can process up to 1,125 tons per day of solid waste while producing up to 240,000 pounds of steam per hour. The steam is then sold to local refineries to use as energy.

“A lot of companies are looking at ways to reduce waste and plants like our one in Tulsa help them reach that zero status,” Regan said.

Twiggs said McKee hopes to hit that zero waste mark.

“It’s a journey, and we’re going to have fun doing it,” he said.

The amount of material McKee Foods recycles each year, company-wide, is: 3,900 tons of cardboard, 85 tons of paper ingredient bags, 275 tons of mixed office paper, 3 tons of plastic, 3,000 gallons of used petroleum oil, 89,000 pallets, 1,850 used tires, 550 batteries and 550 tons of scrap metal.