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Perdue Farms announced last week that its foods-producing plant in Lewiston has earned GreenCircle Zero-Waste-To Landfill certification for the second straight year.

The Lewiston operation has diverted 100 percent of its waste — nearly 19 million pounds — from the landfill in two years since becoming the first U.S. poultry company to earn GreenCircle certification in 2020.

“The re-certification of our Lewiston operation reflects our company vision to be the most trusted name in food and agricultural products and our commitment to being good stewards of our resources,” said Kyle Bolin, senior vice president of live production and operations for Perdue. “We’re working to expand our zero waste to landfill efforts to other operations. Our progress to reduce our environmental impact in our operations represents another example of our company’s holistic approach to responsible and sustainable practices.”

The company’s operation in Petaluma, Calif. recently became the second Perdue Farms facility to earn GreenCircle Zero Waste To Landfill certification having diverted more than 9 million pounds of waste from landfills.

GreenCircle completed extensive audits and assessments at the Lewiston and Petaluma operations, including an audit of all waste streams, inspection of all waste receptacles and assessment of all third-party waste management companies to confirm management methods and diversion rates. Every aspect of the operations’ waste was assessed, including the personal protective equipment worn by associates, the process used to minimize contamination of the cardboard recycling stream, and the composting of cardboard, paper, and feathers, as a few examples.

In 2018, Perdue Farms established aggressive five-year environmental sustainability goals, including improving their solid waste diversion from landfills by 90 percent by 2023. Today, they have diverted more than 94 percent of solid waste from landfills.

“Perdue’s pursuit of their waste diversion goals demonstrates that transparency and continuous improvement are essential to the way they do business,” says Tad Radzinski, certification officer at GreenCircle. “Our Zero Waste To Landfill certification is very difficult to achieve because it requires 100 percent of waste to be diverted from landfill. The goal of our certification is to help companies understand where they are with waste minimization and zero-waste programs. That information enables them to minimize waste, manage materials to reduce their environmental impact, and achieve their environmental stewardship goals.”