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| Sunny Delight's Littleton Plant |
Sunny Delight Beverage Co. has announced in it has achieved its goal of sending zero waste to landfill.
The sustainability goals, as outlined in the report include targets for reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill to zero by 2013, as well as reducing energy and water use, and its carbon footprint. In addition, Sunny Delight is aiming to reduce packaging materials, and increase recycling.
In 2007 the company produced a total of 3166 tons (2872 tonnes) of waste, of which 1140 tons (1035 tonnes) was sent to landfill, with 2026 ton (1836 tonnes) being recycled.
By 2009, while the total waste produced had risen to 4435 tons (4023 tonnes) – largely due to the inclusion of data from the Mataro plant, as well as a 5% increase in production - the quantity sent to landfill had reduced to just 418 tons (379 tonnes), with 3978 tons (3608 tonnes) being recycled.
Four years ahead of schedule, 2009 saw the Company’s Anaheim, US and Mataro, Spain facilities achieve the goal of sending zero waste to landfill. In April 2010 the remaining US plants in Atlanta, Sherman and Brunswick also followed suit in achieving this goal.
Sunny Delight said in its report that it these goals were hit through a combination of measures. For example in a move towards a paperless workplace, vendors must now submit their invoices electronically. This has had the knock-on benefit of speeding the review and approval of documents, and reducing paper and storage costs. Expense reports are also only accepted electronically now.
The benefits of these changes have not just been environmental, the impact of reducing waste has been felt on the bottom line too. Efforts to reduce material loss by 15% across all the firms plants has led to a $337,000 saving over 2008 figures, while the 63% reduction in waste sent to landfill has delivered a $165,000 saving.
In addition the company says that it will continue to look for opportunities to minimize packaging materials in an effort to reduce the amount of materials needing to be recycled, and also save on material and distribution costs.
In total the Sunny Delight’s sustainability initiatives have delivered an impressive $2.44 million saving in two years. Ellen Lobst, chief sustainability officer, and senior vice president of manufacturing technology at Sunny Delight, said,
"As noted, one of our key sustainability goals is zero waste to landfills by 2013. Our manufacturing sites in Anaheim and Mataro met this goal in 2009 – four years ahead of schedule – with our remaining plants achieving this goal in early 2010."
