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Clorox’s First Food Plant Achieves Zero Waste

Clorox’s First Food Plant Achieves Zero Waste

Published 10-24-24

Submitted by The Clorox Company

Bottles of Ranch dressing on a conveyor line

Clorox’s environmental, social and governance goals are integrated into our IGNITE strategy because we believe they create value for our company, brands, people and communities. We’ve focused on areas where we can make the biggest impact, and much of our progress is realized through the work of our purpose-driven brands.

Our Hidden Valley Ranch manufacturing plant in Wheeling, Illinois, recently became the first facility within our Foods business unit to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill, or ZWtL, status. This puts Clorox one step closer to our ambitious goal to reach ZWtL in 100% of our plants by 2025 and in our global facilities by 2030. We spoke with Wheeling senior engineer Jim Wood; plant health, safety and environment leader Zach Osiyemi; and plant manager Keith Toomey about how our teammates mobilized to make it happen.

How did you engage and motivate your team to adapt to waste-reducing practices?

Meeting Clorox’s ZWtL criteria is no small feat, but the Wheeling team accepted the call to action, worked together to solve waste-flow hurdles and became our first Foods plant to achieve this goal. In recent years, the team adjusted their behaviors and implemented new processes throughout the plant to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. This includes simple operational shifts, like separation of waste streams and working with suppliers on reuse opportunities.

An employee hold up a bottle of ranch dressing in a manufacturing warehouse.

Were there any unique challenges this team faced during the transition to zero waste? How did they overcome them?

Food production presents unique challenges when it comes to reducing waste, so the Wheeling team had much to learn on this journey. Other Clorox locations are able to use waste-to-energy facilities to handle difficult-to-recycle materials, but the village of Wheeling does not have an operation in the area for this type of disposal. This compelled the team to research other ways of handling food-related waste streams; conduct trial runs to see if our product can be properly handled and discarded; then establish all new processes for storing, shipping and disposal that keeps scrap materials out of the local landfills.

The Wheeling team was persistent. Even when disposal outlets were identified, many options didn’t make logistical sense in terms of costs or air emissions associated with long-haul trucking of waste. The team wasn’t discouraged and ultimately unlocked new opportunities to reuse materials and significantly decrease the quantity of waste generated. Today, over 76% of the waste generated onsite is being reused in some way. For instance, the plastic pallets used to package and transport our bottles are sent back to our supplier for reuse.

A team posed by a sign "Safety First"

What advice would you give to other manufacturing plants aiming to achieve zero waste?

This journey started with leadership — both at the plant and throughout the business. Having our leaders not only involved but leading the charge was critical to our success. When embarking on this challenge, it’s important to understand and be able to advocate for the “why” behind driving new processes that improve the business while also protecting the environment in the communities where we work and live.

A large group posed outside in matching orange shirts.

 

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The Clorox Company

The Clorox Company

The Clorox Company has long been committed to purpose-driven growth. We believe our purpose is clear: to champion people to be well and thrive every single day.

Our allegiance to this shared aspiration guides and inspires our company to act with swiftness and confidence toward a more socially and environmentally sustainable future. With an ambition to mobilize all of our people and brands, we strive to act as a force for positive, lasting change in three key areas: 

  • Healthy lives: Improving people’s health and well-being.
  • Clean world: Taking climate action and reducing plastic and other waste.
  • Thriving communities: Investing in our people and communities to contribute to a more equitable world.

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