Turning Waste to Opportunity in Thailand

McCormick’s Amata Thailand plant opened in 2018 and sustainability has been a key consideration since its development. The factory was built with a construction waste diversion rate of 90% and it is LEED Silver certified. Kantipa Thamworrawong, a Procurement Director for the region, is one of many dedicated employees who has embedded PLP into her daily role by identifying innovative sustainability solutions in the Amata plant. One of these was the disposal of sludge, a biproduct from processing, which the company was paying to be collected by a vendor.

Kantipa first approached the plant’s safety manager a couple of years ago to discuss how the biproduct could be repurposed. They decided to engage a local university, that tested the waste and created a process for it to be converted into organic soil conditioner.

“My next thought was that we should give it away to the local community,” explained Kantipa. “We took the philosophy that if we just gave the soil to them, they would always be waiting for us to provide it, but if we taught them how to make the organic soil themselves, they would always have a supply.”

The team identified an impoverished rural school for children whose parents had moved away to earn an income. The school could not afford to buy quality vegetables for the students and was trying to grow their own. The soil quality, however, was very poor, due to the burning of fields to clear them after the harvest of the sugar cane, which was grown in the local area.

The school was given training on how to use the organic soil conditioner as a starter and mix it with food waste to increase the volume of organic soil for growing their own vegetables. The students now eat the vegetables that are grown, and any leftover produce is sold to the local community. The program was an enormous success. “We saw a lot of improvement in the school,” said Kantipa, “I feel really happy because now the students have good quality, organic food and can rely on themselves.”

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