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Scotland Quaker Oats Plant Sends Zero Waste to Landfill

<p>A Quaker Oats production facility in Scotland has stopped sending waste to landfill, instead diverting all waste either to be recycled or become animal feed.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

PepsiCo International's Quaker Oats plant in Cupar, Fife, Scotland, stopped sending any waste to landfill at the end of September, instead diverting all of its waste to be recycled or become animal feed.

The plant is the fifth PepsiCo International site in the U.K. to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status. Last year, the site sent 766 tonnnes of waste to landfills and planned to reduce that amount by 75 percent this year.

The plant well-surpassed that goal with a number of systems to regulate the amount and types of waste that are produced.

About 76 percent of the facility's waste is now used as animal feed and the rest is recyclable material like cardboard, metal and plastic. A composting company takes all of the food waste from the cafeteria.{related_content}

In addition to educating employees about waste and assigning waste marshals to make sure that recyclables are sorted properly, the facility switched from having several contractors that handle different wastes to one waste contractor that gave advice on reducing waste.

The Cupar site joins PepsiCo's four other U.K. zero-waste-to-landfill sites, which include its Southern Region Distribution Centre and plants in Coventry (producing Squares, Doritos, Sunbites and French Fries), Lincoln (producing Quakers and Sensations) and Skelmersdale (producing Walkers, Walkers Baked, Snack-a-Jacks and Monster Munch).

It also joins the numerous other companies who have achieved or are working toward zero-waste-to-landfill goals like GM, Toyota, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Freightliner Custom Chassis.

Cardboard sorting - Courtesy PepsiCo International

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