WEST LIBERTY, Iowa The 1,900 or so employees at West Liberty Foods three plants can produce up to 425 million pounds of food annually but no more than 1 percent of their garbage is taken to the landfill.

The West Liberty plant, which employs about 830 people, has been certified by an independent agency as landfill free. What little garbage the plant produces is burned in a cement plant incinerator, which swapped out nonrecyclable waste for the coal that it previously burned.

The independent certification by NSF International Strategic Registrations means that all three plants are now landfill free. The companys other facilities are in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and Tremonton, Utah.

This accomplishment marks a significant milestone in the history of our company, our industry and our state, Ed Garrett, president and CEO of West Liberty Foods, said in a news release. Being landfill free is a testament to our team, and it is my hope that other companies will see our success here and undertake similar initiatives in their own businesses.

The company plans an event this spring to mark its landfill-free status.

According to The National Provisioner, a magazine for the meat industry, Garrett was inspired to make the company landfill free while attending a convention on sustainability.

By becoming committed to recycling and composting, the three plants annually keep 7.5 million pounds of trash out of the landfill enough to fill 312 residential dump trucks or equivalent to the waste produced by more than 265,000 households.

In 2012, by committing to recycling paper, plastic and other materials as well as composting, workers at the West Liberty plant diverted more than 2 million pounds of trash from the landfill.

The West Liberty team used innovation to convert soiled plastic into a combustible material that would be accepted by the disposal incinerator, said Gerald Lessard, the companys vice president and chief operating officer.

The West Liberty facility now has several stations of recycling carts with

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West Liberty company certified landfill free