2018 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Award, Second Place Program Category: Land O’Lakes

The company’s Kent, Ohio, facility found a better way to discard packaged butter products it couldn’t sell, such as line samples. Instead of putting products in a trash compactor, Land O’Lakes now uses an industrial shredder. As the shredder heats up, it presses melted butter through a screener and into an anaerobic digester. Micro-organisms in the digester consume the butter, producing electricity, heat and methane gas. Land O’Lakes’ Josh Becking explains how the company saves $41,000 a year and diverts 282 tons of butter from the landfill to the digester.