Description
Circular economy has become increasingly important globally in recent years. Symrise uses by-products and side-streams from various raw material processes to develop valuable products. Symrise finds uses that did not previously exist and, in doing so, responds to major challenges facing the Earth, from climate change and biodiversity loss, to nourishing an ever-growing number of people. In its nutrition segment, including Diana Food, Diana Pet Food and Diana Aqua, and the recently acquired ADF/IDF, by-products already account for a large proportion of sales. As an example, Symrise Nutrition chicken-based solutions come from 100% chicken side-stream raw materials (e.g., carcasses, livers), which provide different functionalities and products, from food to pet food. With the No Waste program, Symrise has identified some 50 side-stream materials from production and is investigating and developing new ways and solutions to valorize them, either for food or pet food, to fertilize soils or transform them into biofuel through methanization.
Partners involved
Internal stakeholders within Symrise (cross-segment specialists), public and private partnerships (universities, start-ups, fertilizer companies).
Impact
Since the launch of this project in 2017, Symrise Nutrition has reduced by 50% the tonnage of chicken waste in its production by innovatively valorizing side-stream materials into new food and pet food applications, avoiding sending valuable material to landfill.
Barriers
One of the challenges is to embrace the entire organization (e.g., purchase, production, supply chain, R&D, marketing and sales) and to involve experts across segments (e.g., scent and care) from different disciplines to re-think problems and consider possible solutions from different angles. The design thinking step requires regulatory expertise to ensure that the new application complies with regulations (within food, pet food and outside these sectors). The most important challenge is to establish a solid supply chain for the side-stream.