Over 20 percent of Nestlé Purina factories in North America achieve zero waste to landfill status

Nestlé Purina has announced that five of its factories in North America – spanning dog food, cat food and litter – have achieved zero waste to landfill status. This important milestone marks Purina's first zero waste facilities in North America and supports Nestlé's global commitment to be landfill-free by 2020.

"We're particularly proud of our employees whose dedication and passion for sustainability made this accomplishment possible," says William Cooper, Vice President, Manufacturing. "Purina's culture inspires good environmental practices. We are committed to continuous improvement towards sustainability in every step of our value chain and to making a better world for pets and the people who love them."

Reducing waste is a critical part of Nestlé Purina's sustainability roadmap, which identifies how the Company can best add value for the environment and society to make the biggest positive influence. Work continues at other Purina facilities, including offices and distribution centers, across North America to meet the global commitment to achieve zero waste to landfill status by 2020, or sooner. Under Nestlé global standards, to achieve zero waste to landfill status a facility's discarded materials are directed to destinations that specialize in recovering the ecological and/or economic value of the material.

"A steadfast commitment to resourcefulness and social responsibility is nothing new at Purina – it has been engrained in our culture for decades," says Gopi Sandhu, Director, Environmental Engineering. "The spirited determination shown by all of our factories toward achieving this goal is astounding. Five have crossed the line, and others are well on their way. The efforts led by Purina's Operations Performance Team over the past five years continue to provide a solid foundation for every factory."

Measures to reduce waste to landfill focus on three key areas: employee engagement; improving processes to minimize generation of waste at the source; and partnerships with credible vendors for composting, recycling, energy recovery, and other forms of beneficial use, in line with Nestlé's environmental sustainability guidelines and standards. All of Nestlé Purina's factories have externally verified environmental management systems through ISO 14001 certification.

Purina's "war on waste" began in 2010, and since then the company has reduced waste to landfills in North America by over 21 percent.

Purina's five landfill-free factories adds to the growing number of Nestlé factories in North America to achieve zero waste to landfill status.