The Ingham’s team at the Tahmoor Turkey Primary Processing facility in New South Wales has reduced the site’s water usage by 26 per cent in five months.
The Tahmoor facility has saved 24,000kL of potable water in total so far, which is the equivalent of nine Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The site processes approximately 27,000 turkeys per week, with water being an essential part of the process to produce quality products including portioned, minced, marinated and whole turkey birds.
When plant manager, Carolynn Wade, joined the team in 2021 she commenced bringing the leadership team together comprising engineering, production, safety and quality to discuss ideas to improve the site. Top of the list was how they could do the right thing for the environment by saving water.
The team identified a range of initiatives to reduce water usage across the site. This included preventative and reactive maintenance to resolve water leakages, working with the cleaning contractors to update their cleaning practices to use less water, and reducing the water volume in the spin chiller tanks by 14,000L per processing day.
The reduction in water usage has also led to less wastewater on site, freeing up the wastewater storage dams and adding the further benefit of less discharge to the local council’s wastewater treatment system by more than 200kL per day. The team is both saving water and reducing our environmental footprint in the local community.
The Tahmoor leadership team has shown what great progress can be made by working together towards a more sustainable planet through food processing.