CASE STUDY No. 9505
KEY WORDS= FOOD RESIDUALS, CANNED & BOTTLED GOODS, REUSE
Campbell Soup Company
12-773 State Route 110
Napoleon, OH 43545
Contact: Mike Maringer, Mgr. of Services & Utilities. Tel: 419-592-1010, Ext. 6343 Fax: 419-599-6672
Summary
Canned and bottled food rejected during production is reclaimed using a shredder-magnetic separator-dehydrator system. Vegetable residuals are dried, ground, and screened for reuse as animal feed or applied to farm fields as soil conditioner. Steel, glass, and aluminum scrap is sold to processors. Payback period: 7 months.
Action
Campbell produces V8 Juice, Prego spaghetti sauce, Open Pit barbecue sauce, and various vegetable soups at the Napoleon plant. Previously, rejected cans and bottles (less than 0.5% of production but still a sizeable amount: 3,800 tons a year) were disposed in the county landfill. But when a ban on landfill disposal of liquid waste was announced, an employee task force considered a number of different solutions including construction of an EPA-approved liquid landfill.
Campbell decided to install a can/liquid separation system manufactured by Thomas J. Peters & Assoc., Denver (303-759-9520). The system comprises one large piece of equipment measuring 10 ft. wide, 22 ft. long, and 14 ft. high. It weighs approximately 10 tons. The machine tears canned goods into small strips and washes and magnetically separates the metal; and it crushes glass containers and separates and washes the cullet. The vegetable matter is dried and sold as feed to local hog farmers (it has a protein content of at least 17.65%). During 1995, the system produced 96 tons of animal feed. Recyclables were: steel/tin cans, 461 tons; glass, 150 tons; aluminum, 26 tons.
The Peters equipment is rated at 47 hp ($5,000 a year in electric power) and requires 52.6 gpm in cooling water. It has a life expectancy of 7-10 years. Periodic maintenance includes replacement of shredder knives and transfer belt, and repairs to the vibratory table. One employee is dedicated to running and maintaining the equipment.
The most important change in production routine was to set up a new internal collection system to route rejected products (those with formulation problems, process errors, contamination, or damage to packaging) to the processing center. Color-coded bins were used to identify these goods; employee awareness training preceded implementation.
Payback
During the last full year that Campbell disposed of rejects by landfill, disposal fees for these materials totaled $197,000. The cost to install the new equipment, including site preparation, was $132,000. Thus, Campbell recovered its capital outlay in 7 months and thereafter has reduced operating costs by $197,000 a year, less the cost of one employee, electricity, water, maintenance, and depreciation. But Campbell also earns revenue from the sale of hog feed and recyclables--in 1995, about $37,000.
Additional waste prevented
The system also produces pomace--pressed vegetables from which the juice has been
extracted--that is used locally as soil conditioner on farm fields. Campbell must pay for
disposal of pomace, but the current disposal fee of about $7 a ton compares favorably to
the prevailing price for landfill disposal--about $36.10 a ton.