Unilever UK Ice Cream has installed a waste management system as part of a project to bring improved control, visibility and efficiency to key parts of its Gloucester factory.
Ice cream manufacture is a typical high speed, highly automated process, where the combination of complex product processes and high line speeds produces a small, but steady flow of waste material.
All non-reworkable process and packaging waste is collected from the lines and weighed at a central terminal. Information on 'where' and 'when' the waste originated, together with 'who' collected it, is automatically recorded within a Marco system to provide data on waste generation and trends.
"Overall this will give us a much clearer view of 'where' waste is produced so that we can target and identify 'why' in order to implement effective waste improvement programmes," said Unilever.