Waste

Over 99.9 per cent of Apetit Group’s waste streams are non-hazardous waste that is either recovered or used in energy production. Nearly half of the entire Group’s waste is biowaste from the Säkylä frozen foods plant, consisting mainly of vegetable peeling waste and sidestreams from harvest season vegetables. Biowaste streams from the Säkylä frozen foods plant were used in bioenergy production.

The Kantvik vegetable oil milling plant generates a very small amount of landfill waste. In addition to biowaste, the plant generates waste streams that are channelled to energy production as industrial biowaste. Some of the Kantvik plant’s waste streams, such as the screening fraction of oilseeds, can be utilised in the oil milling plant’s in-house bioenergy production.

Hazardous waste accounts for less than 0,01 per cent of the Group’s waste streams. Apetit Group’s waste is processed by an external operator that is responsible for the appropriate disposal of waste.

Waste generated by the end products produced by Apetit consist of packaging waste and potential food waste. Apetit aims to increase the degree of recyclability of the packaging materials it uses. Of the packaging waste of Apetit products at the consumer’s end, 45 per cent is recyclable paperboard, 24 per cent is recyclable plastic, and 23 per cent is plastic that can not be recovered in recycling.

Apetit Group’s operations do not generate wastewater that is directly hazardous to the environment. Water that is used at the Säkylä plant to wash harvest season vegetables and thus contains nutrients goes through Apetit’s own wastewater treatment plant, the operations of which are subject to authorisation. If the water were to be released into the environment without treatment, it would increase eutrophication.

Reducing side streams

The bioenergy plant built at the Kantvik vegetable oil milling plant uses the milling plant’s own side streams in energy production. The straw waste that comes with oilseeds is used as raw material for the bioenergy plant, which reduces the amount of the plant’s waste processed elsewhere.

In 2023 at Säkylä frozen factory, side streams from the harvest season and other organic waste were utilized in bioenergy production at the bioenergy plant next to the Säkylä freezer factory. The brush scrubbers and steam peelers deployed at the Säkylä frozen foods plant have significantly improved root vegetable yield by reducing the amount of material ending up as peeling waste.