EPA Hails Excel-Wapello County For Participation In Environmental Project
For Immediate Release: October 1, 2002
Contact: Mark Klein, Excel Corporation 952-742-6211
OTTUMWA, IA, October 1, 2002 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized the Excel Corporation pork processing business here for its participation in a voluntary program designed to reduce waste and conserve resources.
Excel-Wapello County has one project already underway that conserves 80,000 gallons of water a day and has another being studied that could potentially recycle 25 to 30 tons of plastic a week.
EPA's Meat Processing Environmental Management System (EMS) pilot project calls for participating companies to develop plans that can enhance air, water and land resources.
"We decided to participate in this voluntary program to see what we could do to make things better for the environment," said Randy Zorn, general manager at the pork plant. "What was once waste can now be a reusable resource."
Excel already is reducing its water consumption by 80,000 gallons a day by recycling some of its water that can then be used in the rendering process. In the past, that water had been sent directly to the treatment lagoons.
Excel is also looking at a process that could take the 25 to 30 tons of plastic that come through the plant in a week, creating the raw materials that could eventually be recycled by other companies into new plastic products. That plastic is now going to the landfill.
"We should know in six months or so whether the plastic recycling project will work," Zorn said. "Projects like these have the capability of reducing the pressure on local landfills."
Excel currently captures methane created by the wastewater treatment process and simply burns it. The company is looking at the possibility of installing a micro turbine generator that would recycle this energy source into electricity.
Excel-Wapello County employs about 1,950 people and buys about 16,000 hogs per day, producing pork products sold around the world. Excel Corporation, a subsidiary of Cargill, Incorporated, is a leader in providing premium quality beef and pork products and programs to retail and commercial food service markets around the world. Based in Wichita, Kan., Excel employs approximately 24,000 people worldwide and has production facilities in the United States, Canada and Australia. Among its leading brands are Sterling Silver®, AngusPride®, Northridge Farms® and Tender Choice®.
Cargill, Incorporated is an international marketer, processor, and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services with 97,000 employees in 59 countries. The company provides distinctive customer solutions in supply chain management, food applications, and health and nutrition.