Que Pasa Mexican Foods is part of the Nature's Path Foods family. The goals that Nature's Path has for zero waste are shared by the whole team at Que Pasa Foods. The plant is newly renovated and when the equipment and systems were being developed, they were specifically designed to be as close to zero waste as possible. The mantra for the plant has been, since its opening: "Not a single chip of crumb on the floor."
The plant was able to achieve a 96 percent diversion rate because if it's commitment to zero waste. Que Pasa Foods produces millions of pounds of tortilla chips and whole grain tortilla being every year, but through their zero waste efforts, there are months where under 2,000 kgs of landfill garbage are produced for the whole facility!
They have been able to achieve their zero waste goals through a focus on:
- Ensuring that product is no wasted. Currently, the plant has an under 1.5 percent waste percentage on it's production line. Any food product that does spill, touch the floor or become unusable, is diverted to animal feed and never to landfill
- Centrifuging off the unusable corn fiber and shells of corn when they grind their whole corn, and sending it to bio-digesters to be turned into energy.
- Ordering all corn and supply in bulk packaging, and ensuring all their suppliers utilize recyclable plastic super sacs or poly-film No. 2 plastic liners. They have a local plastic recycling company that takes the soft plastics for recycling bi-weekly
- Working with team members to ensure they know the procedures for zero waste operations. They themselves help identify more opportunities for improvement.