Waste During 2014, AAK’s production plants generated 111,000 MT of waste. This is an increase of 50 percent compared to 2013 predominantly caused by an increase of shea kernel processing. 99.8 percent of the total amount of waste was non-hazardous. In waste disposal, there is a clear, very determined effort towards reducing waste going to landfill. Nevertheless, new acquisitions joining the AAK Group previously had a low waste disposal focus and their challenge now is to improve waste management to a level that meets AAK’s objective for 2015, which is sending less than 1.5 percent to landfill. Changes to US legislation regarding the use of bleaching earth also presents new challenges. In 2014, 2,500 MT were disposed of as landfill, which is a decrease of 200 MT compared ” Ashes to fertilizer for the most Swedish of industries – forestry 36 to 2013 (an improvement of 7 percent). A large proportion of the waste is shea meal, which is the residual product when oil is extracted from shea kernels. Shea meal has no nutritional value and is used as biomass in power plants. The majority of AAK’s finished products are delivered in bulk, defined as more than 0.9 MT per delivery unit, thus including pallet tanks. Delivering products in bulk means a reduction in packaging material. By weight, 56 percent of AAK’s products are bulk deliveries, while 44 percent are packed goods. 2014 waste disposal 2 % Landfill 4 % Reuse 22 % Recycle 72 % Recover MT Total waste 120,000 100,000 80,000 40,000 20,000 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Hazardous waste % 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 AAK Sweden continues its successful initiative to return all of its ashes, approximately 400 MT per year, from the burning of pellets to the forest. The use of our biological ashes contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and to maintain and support sustainable forestry. By spreading the ashes, important nutrients that are removed during logging are returned. This ensures the soil’s long-term productivity, while soil acidification is prevented. As a result of this measure, AAK Sweden has reduced its amount of waste to landfill by 75 percent. This large reduction is a very important part of the Group’s efforts to overall reduce the amount of waste to landfill. Anders Söderström Site and Customer Quality Manager, AAK Sweden
AAK - Sustainability Report 2014/2015
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