Waste Management in Fonterra Tirau - Assignment Example

Fonterra Tirau Introduction Fonterra’s Tirau site was established in 1933, initially it manufactured butter only. Recently, Tirau site is manufacturing lactic casein, ethanol, and lactalbumin, producing 11,400 tonnes per annum for home and global markets (Jackson.W, 2003). The site has an input of about 2,900,000 litres of milk everyday from local farmers who are shareholders from farms within the Waikato, this site normally from operates only in August to December which are the season. In New Zealand Tirau site is the only site that produces lactalbumin, it produces approximately 1400 tonnes of lactalbumin every year (Wells, 2006). Tirau site produces both technical and edible casein, manufacturing about 7000 tonnes per year for export to the USA, China, Japan and Europe. Fonterra Tirau contribute a lot to the South Waikato community and its members. Fonterra Tirau site conducts regular neighborhood clean-ups and helps the unpaid assistant fire brigade in their activities. Biogas produced from the site’s waste water treatment system is used to partly fuel the site’s boilers. Fonterra Tirau site owns one of the largest waste water treatment plants in the Southern part of Hemisphere and all other sites in the region relays on this site (Franklin, R 2007). Impact Assessment A detailed EIA report that was submitted to Waikato department of Environment should have the following details which are the main components of EIA: Screening, Scoping, prediction and mitigation, management and monitoring or audit. The figure below shows the components of EIA Screening is the process of deciding on whether an EIA is required. EIA may be based on site-specific information. For example in this case before the Tirau site was established EIA should have been conducted because it is likely to cause a lot of environmental issues which require to be properly mitigated. Guidelines for whether or not an EIA is required will be country specific depending on the laws or norms in operation (Manning 1986). Scoping is conducted early in the project cycle at the same time as outline planning and pre-feasibility studies. Scoping is the process of identifying the key environmental issues and is perhaps the most important step in an EIA. Decision makers, the local community and the technical community, have an interest in assisting to premeditate the issues which should be dealt with (Wathern, 1988). With regard to base-lining recreational values, Manning (1986) suggests some pertinent questions that may assist in focusing on issues or areas of potential concern. Prediction and mitigation follows once the scoping process is finished once the major impacts to be studied have been identified, prediction and mitigation measures are then discussed. Mitigation is defined as a set of actions designed to reduce, avoid or compensate for the extent, duration or magnitude of any significant effect once the project has began (Peterson, 1999). This stage forms the central part of an EIA. Several major options are likely to have been proposed either at the scoping stage or before and each option may require separate prediction studies. Realistic and affordable mitigating measures cannot be proposed without first estimating the scope of the impacts, which should be in monetary terms wherever possible (Peterson, 1999). The purpose of monitoring is to compare predicted and actual impacts, particularly if the impacts are either very important or the scale of the impact cannot be very accurately predicted. The results of monitoring can be used to manage the environment, particularly to highlight problems early so that action can be taken. The range of parameters requiring monitoring may be broad or narrow and will be dictated by the prediction and mitigation stage of the EIA. Typical areas of concern where monitoring is weak are: water quality, both inflow and outflow; stress in sensitive ecosystems; soil fertility, particularly salinization problems; water related health hazards; equity of water distributions; groundwater levels. Aside from checking the validity of an EIA process, monitoring serves two other key purposes. First, it provides information that will improve the effectiveness of future EIA. Second, monitoring in combination with research helps determine standards and provides information that will assist with planning and future decision-making. In this way EIA moves from being purely a reactive tool to a directive resource management tool (Peterson, 1999) Auditing, in order to make the most of on the experience and knowledge gained, the last stage of an EIA is to carry out an Environmental Audit some time after completion of the project or implementation of a programme. It will therefore usually be done by a separate team of specialists to that working on the bulk of the EIA. The audit should include an analysis of the technical, procedural and decision-making aspects of the EIA. Technical aspects include: the adequacy of the baseline studies, the accuracy of predictions and the suitability of mitigation measures. Procedural aspects include: the efficiency of the procedure, the fairness of the public involvement measures and the degree of coordination of roles and responsibilities. Decision-making aspects include: the utility of the process for decision making and the implications for development, (adapted from Sadler in Wathern, 1988). The audit will determine whether recommendations and requirements made by the earlier EIA steps were incorporated successfully into project implementation. Lessons learnt and formally described in an audit can greatly assist in future EIAs and build up the expertise and efficiency of the concerned institutions. Public participation Large projects like Tirau site have adverse impacts on the local community; this effects might be positive or negative. The lead agency that conducted EIA of Tirau site should have involved the public so that their issues could be incorporated in the design of the project plan. The objective of public participation is to improve the well being of the population, a lack of understanding of the community and their society may cause a development that has considerable negative outcomes. More significantly, there may be divergence between national economic interests and those of the local population. For example, the need to increase local rice production to satisfy increasing consumption in the urban area may differ from the needs as perceived by the local farmers. To allow for this, public participation in the planning process is essential. The EIA provides an ideal forum for checking that the affected public has been adequately consulted and their views taken into account in project preparation. is a vital part of EIA and starts early on in the process (Peterson, 1999). An applicant should canvas views of key shakeholders, affected parties and experts. With the Department’s concession application process, public participation occurs later when an application with potentially significant effects is publicly notified and people are able to make submissions and be heard in support of those submissions. However, best practice for large-scale proposals suggests that this is not the best time for an applicant to consult affected or interested parties. This is best achieved when the applicant is formulating their proposals. During the pre application briefing, Department staff can assist applicants by identifying who these parties might be. However they are likely to include Iwi, Forest & Bird, Federated Mountain Clubs and existing concessionaires. By consulting with affected parties at this point the applicant may be able to reassure concerns and incorporate issues into the project design before the application is locked into timely and expensive statutory process. Environmental management tools Fonterra’s site is depends on natural resources, so conserving the environment is vital to the site growth. Fonterra’s are taking steps such as cleaner production to enhance its environmental production in every aspect of its enterprise; this is because Fonterra’s site future as an industry depends on environment. The commonly known environmental management tools are: Cleaner Production, Environmental Performance Evaluation Environmental Accounting , Life Cycle Costing, Life Cycle Screening, Material, Energy and Toxic-analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, Material Input per Service Unit, Design for the Environment, Environmental Auditing, and Environmental Management Systems Cleaner Production (CP) and Environmental Accounting are occasionally used to calculate the environmental impact caused by the production processes. The Cleaner Production is very similar to the standards for Environmental Accounting (EPA, 1992). This delineates procedures for carrying out an initial assessment to identify chances of waste reduction or even its elimination. Environmental Life Cycle Assessment as a tool in environmental management is the most important tool in evaluating environmental impacts in the entire product’s life cycle. International Organization of Standardization, standardizes the Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Waste Minimization and treatment Cheese whey is a by-product of dairy industries, particularly the watery portion that is formed during the coagulation of milk casein in cheese making or in casein manufacture. Whey is produced in large amounts and has a high polluting load, therefore representing a significant environmental problem. Cheese whey represents an important environmental problem because of the high volumes produced and its high organic matter content. As a general rule of thumb, to make 1 kg of cheese about 9L of whey are generated (Kosikowski, 1979). Pollution of the cheese whey the by product has been minimized in Fonterra’s site by fermentation of the by product using yeast to produce ethanol which is used as fuel though it is not economical to produce fuel by fermentation of cheese whey (Rogosa etal; 1947) Discharge Contaminants into the Air at the Tirau Dairy Factory Processing Plant, which includes particulates from drying processes, combustion of Natural Gas or Biogas, aerial emissions from fermentation and distillation processes and aerosols and odour from the waste water treatment Discharge up to 12,000 m3 of spent Dairy Factory cooling water per day at a rate of 180 litres per second and to discharge up to 30,000 m3 of Factory site stormwater at a rate of 1,900 litres per second to Oraka Stream. There are various initiative put in place in Newzeland and they are as well used in Tirau in waste minimization and treatment as discussed below: Implementation of the liquid and hazardous waste code of practice with Water New Zealand. The Code was designed to protect human health and the environment, and related to liquid waste and hazardous waste that is transported. The efficient energy use is driven by initiatives such as: Systematic analysis of energy needs at each plant Installation of heat recovery loops Attention to operating practices Monitoring and reporting on energy use. The efficient use of energy in Tirau site is key factor in its drive to enable a sustainable dairy business. The future of Tirau site depends on being able to gather renewable forms of energy, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and lowering the ever increasing costs of energy consumption. In response to these drivers Fonterra runs one of the largest energy efficiency programmes in New Zealand. In 2007 this programme won the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Contact Energy Management Award for our achievement in reducing energy consumption by 10% The utilization of biomass from forest residue such as rotten wood and leaves and biogas from the anaerobic digestion of effluent and waste offer reliable alternative sources of energy. Tirau plant has an anaerobic digester which operates on the factory wastewater and it provides about 30% of the gas requirement for the boiler. This kind of activity done in Fonterra is a great example of turning a waste stream into a valuable energy resource. The drive to reduce consumption has resulted in a recent at our Hautapu, Whareroa, Edendale and Clandeboye sites. Results from Edendale and Clandeboye have yet to be finalised but the other two sites produced over 100 ideas for improving energy efficiency. At Hautapu 40 new ideas have been identified with the potential to generate annual savings of 57,000 gigajoules of gas and 2,800 MWh of electricity. At Whareroa, the team identified 46 fresh ideas with the potential to deliver annual savings of 8,500 gigajoules of gas and 4,300 MWh of Electricity We are targeting energy efficiency on farm through the Dairy Energy Action Programme, a joint initiative from Fonterra, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Launched in early 2010 it involves energy audits on 150 farms, with the findings used to develop energy savings tools and information for the wider dairy community. The pilot aims to help farmers cut their energy spend by at least 10 per cent. If achieved throughout the sector, this would be worth around $16 million annually. Dairying is an energy-intensive business – the average farmer spends $14,000 a year on electricity alone. Dairy farms also account for nearly 2.5 per cent of the country’s electricity use and also slightly more than all of Fonterra’s New Zealand manufacturing sites combined. Reductions in consumption could lead to significant national electricity savings and with these savings come reduced costs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Recent initiatives to improve our milk collection efficiency include: Pre-concentrating milk before to transporting it Increases use of rail transportation Progressively upgrading our tanker fleet to Euro 4 emissions standards (currently 15 % to achive these standards) Installing state of the art programing software to maximize tanker journeys. Tanker of Fonterra’s fleet travels more than 81,000,000 kilometers every year to collect milk form its NewZealand manufacturing sites and that’s approximately equivalent distance as to make 100 trips to the moon to and fro. In conclusion Fuel efficiency is therefore a major issue in Fonterra’s dairy industry. Energy consumption is monitored very circumspectly and it plays an important part in monitoring both from a cost and environmental impact which might result from milk processing activities. References . Devlin, P. J. Corbett, R. M. Pebbles, C. J. (1995) Outdoor Recreation In New Zealand, Volume 1, A Review and Synthesis of the Literature. Department of Conservation, Wellington New Zealand. Gilpin, A. (1995) Environmental Impact Assessment: Cutting Edge for the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK. IAIA (2001) Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment Best Practice Institute of Environmental Assessment, Lincoln, UK .Retrieved from www.nzaia.org.nz Jackson, T. (1993), Clean Production strategies, Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden. Liedtke, C. (1994), MIPS, Resource Management and Sustainable Development, Conference: The Recycling of Metals, Amsterdam , Netherlands. Manning, R. E. (1986) Studies in Outdoor Recreation: A Review and Synthesis of the Social Literature in Outdoor Recreation. Oregon State University Press. Oregon Manning, R. E. (1999) Studies in Outdoor Recreation: Search and Research for Satisfaction. Oregon State University Press. Oregon Mathieson, A. & Wall, G. (1992) Tourism, Economic, Physical and Social Impacts Longman Group Limited, England Morgan, R. K. (1998). Environmental Impact Assessment: A Methodological Perspective. Klumer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands. Ministry for the Environment (1999). Auditing Assessment of Environmental Effects. A Good Practice Guide. Ministry for the Environment, Wellington. Peterson (1999). Environmental Impact Assessment of Small Scale Activities in New Zealand Centre for Impact Assessment Research and Training, University of Otago, NZ Ski Area Management (2000). Ski Area Management May 2000 edition Journal Beardley Publishing Corporation, USA. Read More