Danish Crown is not only one of the world’s largest pork producers, we are also one of the most efficient meat producers in the world. This is because we not only produce meat, but also focus on producing and recycling other products as much as possible.
It is our job to squeeze as much value as possible out of the product we sell for our owners, while also taking care of the environment. Everything on the pig is therefore utilised.
Here are a few examples:
- The heat from the carcasses is used to heat water for cleaning, and the manure from the intestines is used in biogas production.
- The transport manure (the sawdust that is removed from the pig truck before it is washed and disinfected) is used on farmland.
- When abattoir waste ends up at Daka – which collects residues from the food industry and recycles them – it can be turned into meat-and-bone meal.
- The residue left over from this process is ash. This is currently sold to Aalborg Portland which makes cement – so the pigs end up as part of the pavement.
- The small intestine mucosa is used to produce heparin, a blood thinning medication.
How we handle plastic and packaging
Each week, trucks pass through the gates at Danish Crown’s abattoirs carrying large quantities of cardboard and packaging materials. And once the finished products from the abattoirs have been packed, they are shipped out again by truck to customers in Denmark and abroad.
We are continuously working to find alternative packaging solutions that benefit the environment. For example, we have developed a new variant of the corrugated cardboard in the lid used for the majority of our packaging which significantly reduces the carbon footprint. The new corrugated cardboard is 27 per cent thinner, but still has sufficient strength and durability to meet our customer’s needs.
We collect all plastic waste from our packaging machines and sell it to various waste companies that further utilise it.
Plastic that has been in contact with meat cannot currently be recycled, but we are continually trying, together with various partners, to develop equipment that can make this possible in the future.
We also have large quantities of return packaging in the form of boxes, and plastic or steel containers. All of this circulates in large return systems, which we are also constantly working to optimise.