Rendering: a traditional, essential “recycling” method
In North America, only half of what is produced by the livestock industry ends up on our plates. Slaughterhouses, butcher shops, food processing plants, and even supermarkets are left with huge quantities of organic products that will never be consumed. So, what happens to these leftovers? That’s exactly where companies like Sanimax come in!
Rendering: a traditional, essential “recycling” method
In North America, only half of what is produced by the livestock industry ends up on our plates. Slaughterhouses, butcher shops, food processing plants, and even supermarkets are left with huge quantities of organic products that will never be consumed. So, what happens to these leftovers? That’s exactly where companies like Sanimax come in!
Rendering companies play an important role in the communities they serve. How?
- By reclaiming and repurposing more than 2 million tons of organic materials every year.
- By generating five times fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to sending organic materials to a landfill.
- By taking the pressure off landfills, which would quickly become overwhelmed without these mass transformation sites.
- By respecting our planet’s limits.
- By offering the greenest possible option for treating agri-food industry by-products.
- By reclaiming and repurposing more than 2 million tons of organic materials every year.
- By offering the greenest possible option for treating agri-food industry by-products.
- By respecting our planet’s limits.
- By taking the pressure off landfills, which would quickly become overwhelmed without these mass transformation sites.
- By generating five times fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to sending organic materials to a landfill.
- By reclaiming and repurposing more than 2 million tons of organic materials every year.
- By taking the pressure off landfills, which would quickly become overwhelmed without these mass transformation sites.
- By offering the greenest possible option for treating agri-food industry by-products.
- By generating five times fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to sending organic materials to a landfill.
- By respecting our planet’s limits.
A by-products journey inside Sanimax
What happens to the materials that arrive at our facilities before they return to market? This short clip makes it easy to understand!
At Sanimax, we are proud to transform it all
Creating value in new ways: that’s what the circular economy is all about.
With this principle as our guide, we repurpose more than 2 million tons of organic remains every year. The benefits include much less waste thrown into landfills and lots of everyday items being manufactured with renewed materials. Driving your car, painting your house, feeding livestock… Our value-added ingredients can be found in a number of everyday tasks.
Rendering: an impactful recycling process
In North America, half of what is created by the livestock industry does not make it to our plates. Sanimax reclaims what’s left over.
Instead of being thrown away, these unconsumed by-products are transformed into value-added ingredients.
Our high-quality industrial ingredients are used to manufacture everyday items. That’s the magic of the circular economy!
In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, rendering is the equivalent of taking more than 12,000,000 cars out of circulation each year in the United States and Canada.
Rendering: the eco-friendly option
Transporting visibly unusable organic residues to modern facilities, then transforming it into new ingredients, is an environmentally friendly way to dispose of these materials. Studies* have shown that the associated greenhouse gas emissions are much lower than other potential solutions.
Comparing greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) for 1,000kg of meat by-products
Rendering industry
Industrial composting
Anaerobic digestion
Frequently asked questions
The circular economy is an economic system that aims to reduce the consumption and waste of primary materials as much as possible. This model, which is based on recycling, works to eliminate the idea of waste. Supporting the circular economy means preserving our planet’s resources.
Rendering is a process that is used to treat agri-food by-products by transforming them into oils, greases, and proteins. In the context of the circular economy, these value-added ingredients are then used by manufacturing companies that create everyday products.
Check out this animation to better understand how our process unfolds.
Sanimax reclaims used cooking oil, meat and animal by-products, farm deadstock, organic residues, and hides and skins. What we do is important for public health: by eliminating pathogens that are carried by farm deadstock, for example, Sanimax prevents these carcasses from posing a health risk to neighbouring communities.
Each year, we invest a significant amount in making sure our company can happily coexist with nearby communities. We are aware that our neighbours have increasingly high expectations, and that we must minimize the impact of our operations. To facilitate a more harmonious coexistence, Sanimax is more attentive than ever to municipal authorities and communities. Learn more about our commitments.
Sanimax itself doesn’t create any unpleasant smells – they are released during the transformation process. Sometimes, transporting organic materials to our facilities can create a smell, especially when the weather is warm. We take this situation very seriously and we do everything in our power to limit how much our operations impact the people who live in surrounding communities. Targeted investments and the adoption of automation and artificial intelligence have improved our facilities’ stability and performance: these improvements have allowed us to work more quickly and experience fewer unforeseen issues, which minimizes the risk of odours.
Check out this animation to better understand how our process unfolds.
Sanimax produces proteins, greases and oils, as well as ingredients that are used in pet food. We therefore contribute to the essential role that rendering plays in the food production chain. Each year in North America, our industry produces 4.5 billion kilos of grease and oil, and 4.1 billion kilos of protein.
Everything we reclaim is repurposed into ingredients that are used in various industries. These value-added ingredients help manufacture livestock feed, biodiesel, fertilizers, solvents, paint, tires, crayons, and much more!
While we reclaim a huge quantity of organic by-products, we don’t create any waste. What’s more, rendering captures five times more carbon compared to the emissions it generates*. That’s the equivalent of taking 12,000,000 cars off the road across Canada and the United States.
Rendering is also the most efficient treatment option for agri-food industry by-products (compared to burying, composting, anaerobic digestion, or simply leaving them on the ground). In addition to releasing fewer greenhouse gases, the treatment process only takes a few hours.
Check out this animation to better understand how our process unfolds.
Burying organic residues releases five times more greenhouse gas emissions compared to rendering.* If our industry didn’t exist, the colossal quantity of organic by-products that would need to be buried in a landfill would have serious environmental consequences.
*Source: Gooding, C. and D. Meeker. 2016. Review: Comparison of 3 alternatives for large-scale processing of animal carcasses and meat by-products. Prof. Ani. Sci. (Vol. 32, Issue 3, p259–270)
