NARA launches campaign to educate public, government on organics-recycling benefits of rendering

Image: North American Renderers Association

The North American Renderers Association has just released a useful infographic, titled, “Organics Recycling: How Recycling Food Waste with Rendering Creates Value & Ensures Sustainability,” as a part of its information campaign on the subject.

The colorful and informative graphic is an educational tool for the public and those in the government sector who may not be familiar with the rendering process and the sustainability and economic benefits of rendering food waste—specifically meat material.

With the passing of Senate Bill 1383 in California in 2022, which requires local governments to collect and recycle organic waste from commercial businesses, customers and residents, NARA felt it was critical to release this information publicly as hundreds of California jurisdictions are required to be in compliance.

Furthermore, similar initiatives are moving forward in in other parts of the U.S., particularly at the state level.

By providing this information in an easy-to-understand format, NARA is assisting those required to enforce these regulations while educating local governments to help ensure that, moving forward, organic materials like meat, bone, fat and others are being rendered instead of going to landfills.

The new infographic, which explains the definition of “organic” in this context—unlike the organic section of the local grocery store—details how including rendering in the recovery process for organic meat material ensures the highest and best use for this otherwise wasted material and allows that material to instead be upcycled to produce new, recycled goods such as biobased diesel fuels, for instance.

The graphic also outlines a comprehensive step-by-step explanation of how our food waste can be treated and reduced by referencing current information from U.S. EPA’s food-recovery hierarchy, and how rendering is an important step in that process to prevent enormous amounts of needless food waste, ensure sustainability and create value.

Click here for a PDF version of the infographic.

As part of NARA’s organics-recycling information campaign and media rollout for the infographic, the topic is explored in more depth in Render magazine as a feature article in the publication’s October 2023 issue.

The article includes exclusive interviews and a full-sized glossy foldout infographic that can be removed from the magazine for quick access. Visit Render’s website here.

Roughly 50 percent of a meat animal is considered inedible by North Americans.

This leaves a lot of leftover material that, if not rendered, would end up in landfills and increase greenhouse-gas emissions.

By diverting this organic meat from landfills and sending it to rendering facilities, this ensures the otherwise wasted material like protein, bone and fat, as well as used cooking oil (UCO) from restaurants, is safely, hygienically and sustainably processed into clean, rendered material for use in new products—so nothing is wasted.

NARA represents the interests of the North American rendering industry to regulatory and other governmental agencies, promotes the greater use of animal byproducts, and fosters the opening and expansion of trade between foreign buyers and North American exporters.

In addition to its U.S.-based headquarters, the association maintains offices in Mexico and Hong Kong, and has market consultants in strategic locations around the world.

NARA publishes a bimonthly trade magazine, Render.