Project 50/50-5 Food waste

Globally food waste contribute to 8-10 % of greenhouse gas emissions. By reducing food waste we also reduce our climate foot print. About 2 kg of CO2e are emitted for 1 kg of food waste.  

Food waste includes all usable parts of food produced for humans, but which are either discarded or removed from the food chain for purposes other than human food.  

In project 50/50-5, the Group has chosen to include reduced mortality in farming and utilisation of residual raw materials from wild catches to produce fishmeal, fish oil or silage. Such raw materials are used for human consumption or animal feed, generating food for humans.

The Group has participated in a SINTEF project to map the amount of food waste that occurs in the seafood industry, enabling sub-projects to be set up that have an impact.  

We aim to reduce current food waste by 50%, including reduction in mortality in farming and increased utilisation of residual raw materials from wild catches (fishmeal, oil, silage) and reduction of floor fish and unsold products in the Industry/VAP segment.

Level of fishmeal, oil and silage produced from residual raw material have increased by 39% from 2019 to 2021. The increase is mainly cause of the new vessel Kongsfjord producing silage and optimalization of oil and meal production. Volumes in 2022 will not have such significant increase, increase will mainly be in optimizing meal, oil & silage production.  

In Industry and VAP segment reducing food waste is to among other sub projects reduce level of floor fish (products falling on the floor in the production) and unsold products (products expired or ingredients not used in products).

It has been challenging finding a good reporting solution for Industry/VAP facilities in reporting floor fish and unsold product total for the Group. We therefor do not have sufficient data from 2019 to compare with. Level of floor fish and unsold products was in 2020 around 176 868 kg  and in 2021 ;167 383 kg total in the group. All facilities are working according the action plan to reduce floor fish and unsold products.

OTHER FOOD WASTE REDUCTION PROJECTS

  • Utilisation of residual raw materials from wild caught segment as a circular economy within the Group   
  • Increased utilisation of residual raw materials from white fish processing plants – “we use it all”.
  • Opportunity to develop new products utilising residual raw materials in our plant in Stamsund, producing fish cakes, puddings etc.
  • Increased shelf life for retail products to contribute to lower food waste at retail level. By using new technology like CO2 emitters in consumer packages, we have increased shelf life for certain consumer packages by +24% (5 days) 
  • Projects investigating new opportunities to extract protein and meal from residual raw materials
  • Measures to reduce products falling on the floor in all our facilities. A single project will give a reduction of 12 000 kg of food loss by a reduction of 70%.
  • Optimizing trimmings in our facilities to develop new products from trimmings and new by-products.

Project 50/50-5 Plastic

About 5 kg of CO2e are emitted for 1 kilogram of plastic – 2 kg resulting from the production of the plastic and 3 kg of CO2 are emitted when the plastic is burned after use. For some types of plastic, the number may be 4.5 – and for others 5.5. Source: Norwegian Climate Foundation 

Lerøy’s programme, as a Group, is reduce non-recyclable plastic consumption by 50%, including reduction in total plastic consumption. All 60 companies in the Group will contribute to achieving the goal and have established sub-projects with goals for each company.

Each company has established a detailed action plan so that the Group can achieve the target in total by 2024. Cooperation, reporting and following up takes place at three segment levels: Farming, Wild catch and VAP, Sales & Distribution. Cooperation at segment level allows us to utilise ideas and actions across similar operations within the Group, improving our contribution towards achieving the main goals. 

Over the past year, the Group has carried out a thorough evaluation of the sub-projects to assess the actual effect and impact of the measures taken – and to ensure that they are making a difference!

Our understanding is that all plastic is recyclable as long as it is possible to collect and sort in the right fractions. Therefore, "non" recyclable plastic is interpreted as plastic in wrong place. 

We aim to reduce non-recyclable plastic consumption by 50%, including reduction in total plastic consumption. For Farming we measure amount of feed tubes and ropes purchased, for wild catch, Industry and VAP we measure amount of vacuum film, plastic bag sheet and single use hygienic equipment purchased. 

Summarized;  to  reduce plastic purchased as a result of the different sub projects. Less plastic used equals less plastic in wrong place or less kg of plastic per kg products produced. 

For 2021 the group used 6 029 351kg of plastic within the identified areas, about the same level as 2020. We believe that better reporting quality of plastic use in the organization is the reason why volume do not decrease.

OTHER PLASTIC CONSUMPTION REDUCTION PROJECTS

  • On four-pack frozen salmon and frozen whitefish products, we use one plastic chamber for the label. By removing the last chamber with label, we are able toreduce plastic consumption by 10.000 kg.
  • Reduce disposable / hygiene items at each site and replace with multi-use articles.
  • Reduce the use of disposable cleaning agent containers and replace them with multi-use containers.
  • By making changes to just one product, we can reduce plastic waste by 2.5 tonnes by changing the use of vacuum film. This change will also reduce costs. 
  • By working together with our customers we can increase the “degree of filling” in each packaging, reducing the use of plastic per kg of product.