Working for a world without waste
More haste to less waste
In 2015, we reached an important milestone across our operations in the UK and Ireland – zero waste to landfill. Since then, we’ve been working to further reduce the impact of our physical waste as part of our continuous improvement programme and sustainability commitments.
In 2016 we committed to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030. So far, we’ve reduced our food waste levels by 45%.
We’ve done this by adopting the 3-step ‘Target, Measure and Act’ (TMA) approach developed by WRAP and IGD (Institute of Grocery Distribution) as well as the UK Measurements and Reporting Guidelines.
We were one of the first manufacturers in the UK to publish data about our food waste levels
Reducing our waste
We’re looking at areas in our supply chain where there is waste and how we can recycle it into other streams.
For example, we’re working with Sodexo, our site facilities provider, to minimise food waste in our offices and factory canteens, or look at alternatives for managing it.
What happens when we have a break?
One example of our ‘waste not want not’ philosophy is our reworking of the KitKat. We take the trimmings from wafers, breakages and any KitKats rejected by quality assurance, reprocess them and put them back into the wafer filling.
We have:
- Reduced food waste across UK operations by 45% since 2016
- Committed to the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap
- Signed the Courtauld 2025 commitment to cut waste by at least 20%
- Continued to work towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3
- Operated a corporate continuous improvement programme
By accurately predicting demand and production, the supply chain can optimise production levels to avoid the overproduction of food. The monitoring of inventory levels and expiration dates, the use of renewable energy sources, and the enhancement of transport routes can contribute to a reduction in waste and ensure the redirection of surplus food to those who need it."
Food fighters
We’re supporting Too Good To Go, the food waste fighting initiative, in their Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste campaign to help address date-label confusion, reduce reliance on Best Before labels and help eliminate food waste.
