The Peanut Butter Project

The Peanut Butter Project

Food waste is a massive problem in America, and we’re not just talking about the billions of dollars of food thrown away yearly.

Tons of food rot in landfills daily, consuming valuable space and producing harmful emissions. When companies are forced to recall products, that creates even MORE waste, as they have to produce more products to replace the tossed ones.

Luckily, there are ways to dispose of contaminated food waste sustainably. When one peanut butter company was forced to recall over 65 tons of product, they knew they needed a sustainable disposal solution – and that CheckSammy was the right partner for the job. Instead of just throwing out all that peanut butter, they were able to use CheckSammy’s services for a much more sustainable result. Here’s how:

The Problem

When a food company recalled a massive amount of peanut butter, they didn’t want to send all that food to the landfill. They needed to find an alternative, cost-effective way to dispose of their recalled peanut butter.

When peanut butter is contaminated, it creates a huge problem that sends producers scrambling to find solutions. And when a company deals with contaminated products on a large scale, they usually just dump it. The belief is that it is cheaper to send everything to a landfill than to sort through the product and separate what can be salvaged. This results in food waste, packaging waste, and tons of lost hours.

But what if there was an alternative? What if there was a way for companies to reduce the amount of contaminated product they have to dispose of? What if there’s a way for them to keep their customers happy and save money simultaneously?

The Solution

In the wake of a massive peanut butter recall, one Fortune 500 company found itself with tons of unusable product. They wanted a more sustainable way to deal with the excess, so they contacted CheckSammy, a sustainable recycling specialist.

CheckSammy successfully removed 208 pallets of Peanut Butter and disposed of the organic material at a food waste processing facility. In total, 130,000 pounds were collected for diversion.

It took six hours, six 53-foot semi trucks, and tons of manpower to get rid of all that Peanut Butter—but CheckSammy successfully got rid of the producer’s problem while also making sure they sustainably disposed of the food

The solution? An anaerobic digestion facility.

Anaerobic Digestion

Anaerobic digestion is a process that has been around for thousands of years. Humans, plants, and animals use it to break down food into usable energy.

Anaerobic digestion is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms without oxygen. In recycling, anaerobic digestion looks very similar to its human counterpart. Food products are put into a machine called a digester, and the product is then broken down. The resulting byproduct is biogas, a combination of methane and carbon dioxide. The best part? This byproduct is USEABLE ENERGY, and when CheckSammy recycled all that peanut butter, it was diverted to a nearby power plant, allowing residents of the town access to cheap and sustainable energy!

Even more, the plastic jar lids, which never touched the tainted peanut butter, were successfully recycled.

When it comes to the impact of food waste on the environment, we all have a lot to learn. But with enough education and awareness, we can make a real difference. We can proudly say that this project prevented over 25 tons of CO₂ from being released into the atmosphere. And that’s just one small example—there are many other ways to help your community reduce its carbon footprint!

So when you’re looking for a new way to be eco-friendly, don’t just recycle; get CheckSammy.