EPA Honors Crystal Creamery for Food Recovery and Zero Waste Leadership

Blue metallic tanksAnaerobic digester heated tanks at Fiscalini Cheese Company where bacteria break down Crystal Creamery by-products into renewable energy and products, including cow bedding and fertilizer | Click image to enlargeCrystal Creamery has received a Food Recovery Challenge Innovation Award for its zero waste leadership. Crystal Creamery operates an industrial waste water pretreatment system to remove organic contaminants from water before the clarified water is discharged to the City of Modesto’s Publicly Owned Treatment Works. Organic by-products are removed and then transported to nearby Fiscalini Cheese Company which has an anaerobic digestion facility. The by-products are combined with manure and other food waste to produce electricity and valuable commodities such as fertilizer and cow bedding.

The partnership between Crystal Creamery and Fiscalini Cheese Company has allowed Crystal Creamery to achieve the following sustainability goals:
  • divert dairy by-products from disposal
  • generate renewable energy
  • produce fertilizer and animal bedding, and
  • support closed loop and zero waste operations.

Photo Gallery

Building interior with pipes and sealed containersAnaerobic digester equipment used by Crystal Creamery at Fiscalini Cheese Company | Click image to enlarge
Large industrial tank filled with tan pulpy liquidCrystal Creamery dairy-by-product in wastewater slurry | Click image to enlarge
Waterfall of clear water emerging from slurry tank making foam.Water reclamation at the Crystal Creamery Dairy Processing Plant | Click image to enlarge
Large blue cylindrical tanks with fabric domes and connecting industrial building.Anaerobic digester heated tanks at Fiscalini Cheese Company where bacteria break down Crystal Creamery by-products into methane | Click image to enlarge