Innovative Solutions to Eliminate the Concept of Waste
Managing our waste is a critical component of our environmental strategy and we are committed to leading our industry in our approach to minimizing our waste impact.
We have made significant progress in implementing our zero waste-to-landfill (ZWL) program, which is focused on encouraging our Green Teams and employees to implement innovative solutions to reduce waste by reusing and recycling materials. We are focused on increasing our recycling rates and eliminating the concept of waste in our operations. Our Do More Good Plan goal is to achieve zero waste-to-landfill verified status at all major manufacturing facilities by 2030.
In 2022, IFF nonhazardous waste was 494.0 thousands of metric tons, a 1.7% decrease from our 2021 baseline of 502.4 thousands of metric tons.
Our South Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S., flavors facility was certified in 2017 as the industry’s first zero waste-to-landfill manufacturing facility worldwide. Building on the lessons learned, we formalized an internal process for zero waste-to-landfill verification in 2019. Since 2017, we have verified a total of 46 out of 115 major manufacturing facilities as ZWL (or 40%). In 2022, we achieved ZWL verification at 23 new facilities.
Because chemical manufacturing generates some unavoidable hazardous process waste, we’ve taken steps to reduce its generation, identify effective treatments and disposal methods and focus on recovery, reuse and recycling, where possible.
In 2022, IFF nonhazardous waste was 494.0 thousands of metric tons, a 1.7% decrease from our 2021 baseline of 502.411 thousands of metric tons. For hazardous waste, in 2022 IFF generated 179.9 thousands of metric tons, a significant increase against our 2021 baseline of 45.4 thousands of metric tons, primarily due to changes in our wastewater processing and disposal at one facility. Despite the increase at one facility, which drove up our total numbers, we also executed projects at other sites to eliminate hazardous waste, such as upgrading boilers, improving cleaning processes and optimizing the use of volatile organic compounds.
Report Library
Read more about how we are contributing to sustainable development in our 2022 ESG+ Report.
