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Terms of separation: repurposing bread
bbi-22-06-sustainability

By Catalina Mihu

Working to repurpose product waste, Van de Weijer Drogerij dries products on its self-made lines. To do so
sustainably, it begins by separating food products from packaging.

Stale bread is shipped to the small town of Panningen for repurposing just as it sat on the supermarket shelf, packaging and closures included. The Dutch company headquartered here since 1988 has been building its own systems for separation and drying, and has self-produced technologies and processing methods designed to separate, upcycle and recycle old bakery products. The company uses bread that is no longer suitable for human consumption and turns it into animal feed. The processing lines, which run 24/7, include both processing for efficiency. Van de Weijer Drogerij has developed various drying lines with specifications that match the requirements of different types of products.

A sustainable concept in itself, it is also put into practice sustainably: all the energy required for these processes is self-generated and is produced in its plant, using biomass, Monique van de Weijer, Managing Director, tells us. “Our goal is to reuse bread in the most sustainable way possible,” she says. The concept of the business came as an extension of family values. “Do not throw away something that can still be useful,” they believe. This is the principle at the core of building the production lines, by experimenting and learning to continuously improve them. “After some 30 years of investing our energy and time, through trial and error, we are now at the point where we can say we are entirely sustainable – even the energy needed to recycle is sustainable. We are now truly a company that recycles products,” she highlights. Being able to use biomass was a big step forward, to be able to sustain a required temperature. Turning a natural product with inherent fluctuations into an energy of a specific value was a more complex process to master, compared to using gas for energy. The challenge was to stabilize processes despite using fluctuating energy, and it has taken the company many years to achieve.

“Although it is not bread’s initial intended use, we also handle it with the same care as when it was first made, because we also want to make something noble of it: feed animals.”

Monique van de Weijer, Managing Director, Van de Weijer Drogerij

Sustainability: the question is ‘why not?’

To develop the equipment, the goal was not to reinvent the wheel; but, rather, to make use of certain useful principles from various machines. The idea of recycling old bread was the start; separating the packaging was the next step, and then doing so automatically is the company’s differentiating point. Removing plastic wrapping from bakery products uses different techniques, to address different types of packages, plastic films, clips, and various kinds of crates, as secondary packaging is often part of the shipments as well. The challenge was to invent something that could tackle any number of variations and provide the same results. The production plant started on a footprint of 2,000 sqm; meanwhile, the company has reduced the floor space it needs for all its processes down to about 300 sqm. Moreover, “Our system is engineered to only require one person to operate everything,” van de Weijer points out. The only thing that needs to be checked is the feeding; no process parameters require supervision or intervention. Sustainability is in the DNA of the business, and that means the equipment, too. This is why repurposing a stainless steel flour silo and adapting it for their storage needs made more sense than simply buying a new one, for example. “Stainless steel lives forever, so my answer is ‘why not?’ use an existing one and give it a second life,” she explains. This system already works perfectly well for pre-owned clothing pieces and it can work with equipment, too.

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The company currently has four lines for their separation and drying operations, with a combined capacity of 140,000 tons of product per year. Because the final product of this process is bread crumbs that are further used in the animal feed industry, particle size is an important parameter in this process. The dry mass of the resulting product is also important because it directly impacts shelf life (just like in bread production), which can be as long as several months. The resulting product can be further used as a secondary material in feed mixes, which is why a long shelf-life is desirable.

In their work with bakeries that provide bread they no longer use, Van de Weijer Drogerij trucks at their disposal. The bakeries deliver the fresh breads to their stores in the morning and collect leftover bread at the same time. When filled, these containers with stale bread are picked up and brought to the production site and processed right away. The company works with bakers within a 300-350 km radius – as local partnerships are the most sustainable and mutually worthwhile. Van de Weijer: “Although it is not bread’s initial intended use, we also handle it with the same care as when it was first made, because we also want to make something noble of it: feed animals. This also takes considerable attention, time and processing power to achieve.”

Looking into continuous technology upgrades is also part of the business philosophy at Van de Weijer Drogerij, to ensure they make the best use of resources and keep costs under control, to be able to maintain an interesting price for the bakeries providing them with their days-old product – and, ultimately, to be more sustainable.