Crystal Creamery received a national award Tuesday for how it handles the sludge left after making ice cream, yogurt and other dairy foods.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored the Modesto-based company for turning the waste into electricity and other byproducts. It presented the annual Food Recovery Challenge National Innovation Award, part of a federal effort to reduce food waste estimated at 37 million tons a year.
The sludge is collected at the main Crystal plant on Kansas Avenue and trucked to Fiscalini Cheese Co., west of Salida. There it goes into a digester that also handles manure from Fiscalini’s dairy cattle. Bacteria turn the waste into a gas that is burned to produce power. The digester also produces fertilizer for feed crops and bedding for cattle.
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