Manufacturing industries often come under scrutiny for their impact on the environment — especially the dairy sector. From methane emissions to high-energy process, dairy processors are having to re-evaluate their methods.
Dairy industry
Rotary Milking Parlor Photo: Gunnar Richter / Wikimedia
To put the magnitude of the situation into context, 80% of the worldwide population regularly consumes dairy products, so it's evident that the dairy industry has a huge task on its hands. So, what is this booming industry doing to make a change and tackle carbon emissions?
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The Dairy Roadmap
With so many corners of the globe adopting Western foods into their diets, the dairy industry needs to solve the issue of meeting high demands whilst reducing emissions. Add to this, the legally binding commitment that the UK will reach net zero emissions by 2050 and means that reducing emissions becomes a race against time.
Good progress has already been made though. Leading companies, such as Arla Foods, Müller, and Yeo Valley, are heading towards a greener future. In fact, the British dairy sector is world-leading for sustainability, according to Dairy UK. This has been helped by the Dairy Roadmap, a sustainability scheme launched in 2008.
The Dairy Roadmap has set out key targets for the dairy industry — focused on all stages of the production process. It recognises that there is no end to sustainability.
The initiatives are ever-evolving and will be adapted to meet new environmental targets, through key focus areas, the Dairy Roadmap has already set some stringent targets for the sector making dairy energy cleaner.
Climate change and energy
According to the 2020 figures from Dairy UK, major environmental achievements have already happened. There’s been a 20 per cent increase in primary energy efficiency (kWh/tonne). Widespread use of ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants has also been eliminated.
The next big aim for the industry is to cut carbon emissions by a further 30 per cent and adopt cleaner and greener fuel options such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), as these gases have the lowest carbon footprint of any off-grid energy source.
Water-saving methods
Even though the industry relies on water for several of its processes, the dairy industry's processing sites have managed to cut water consumption down by 23.4 per cent. They have also introduced a range of water-saving measures to decrease its environmental impact.
These measures include:
- Water mapping projects
- Rainwater harvesting to reverse osmosis
- Reduced freshwater abstraction
- Optimised Cleaning in Place (CIP) systems.
Recycling efforts
Since 2008, the industry has shown its commitment to recycling the waste it produces – and there’s been a marked improvement. In the same year, 65 per cent of waste was recovered or recycled. The remaining 35 per cent was sent to landfill. Now, the dairy industry recycles or reuses 94 per cent of its waste, with the ambition to reach 100 per cent soon.
Plastic and packaging
Plastic waste has been an environmental concern for some time now. However, in the world of dairy, major changes have already been implemented. In fact, this industry uses some of the most recycled and reused packaging of all consumer products.
Impressively, 85 per cent of HDPE milk containers were recycled in 2018 and at least 95 per cent of tertiary packaging was reused or recycled.
Less food waste
Eliminating food waste in the dairy industry isn't an easy thing to achieve, but the changes that have been made so far are promising. In 2016, most of the potential food waste (produce not meant for consumers) was used in a more environmentally-friendly fashion. Just over 60 per cent was recovered for animal feed and redistribution. And a further 23 per cent was used for anaerobic digestion or biogas production.
Biodiversity
Although biodiversity speaks mainly for farming, improvements can be introduced along the production line. In Dairy UK's 2018 biodiversity strategy, the organisation called for big changes to be made to improve their biodiversity status. Processors have started to engage in projects within their local communities to help reintroduce native species in opportune spaces around their processing plants.
Dairy production has been under intense pressure to reduce its carbon footprint, but from the actions that have been taken, the future looks greener. By following targets set out in the Dairy Roadmap, the industry has proven that it can revolutionise its processes and, with future targets in place, we can expect more improvements to soon follow.
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