Unilever’s Lipton Jebel Ali factory based in Dubai has installed a composting machine to treat the organic waste output recently.

This installation follows its revelation that the factory has achieved its goal of sending zero waste to landfill.

The achievement gives the factory the unique distinction of being the first in the Jebel Ali Freezone (Jafza), and also across the UAE to recycle or reuse all of its waste.

The plant, which is Unilever’s second largest tea production facility globally, produces an 1.2 million tea bags per hour to total six billion tea bags per year, said a statement.

The factory, which in the past  produced up to 450 tonnes or 5.4kg/tonne of waste a year requiring 31,000 sq m of landfill space, is now generating below 0.09 kg of waste/tonne. This puts it in the zero waste to landfill technical category.

This reduction is the equivalent of saving 12,280 trees, and cutting back emissions by 904 tonnes, said the statement.

“Sending zero waste to landfill is key to achieving our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which calls for halving our environmental footprint by 2020. This is a great example of how we are putting our sustainability strategy into action, by decoupling the growth of our business from its environmental impact," said Sanjiv Mehta, Unilever Mena chairman.

With annualised production volumes increasing from 5000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes in 10 years, this site is today a global tea-sourcing hub exporting to 47 countries worldwide, he said.

“By reducing our environmental footprint while promoting business growth, we can ensure that increased product volumes don’t come at the expense of the environment. This enables us to sustainably deliver products to improve the consumer’s quality of life while actually reducing the waste and emissions in absolute terms,” said Mehta.

By end 2012, over 50 per cent of Unilever factories globally will send zero non-hazardous waste to landfill, the statement added.- TradeArabia News Service