Mondelez Kinh Do supports circular economy business

By Phuong Anh - Jul 19, 2022 | 10:03 AM GMT+7

TheLEADERMondelez Kinh Do and the social enterprise Green Connect have signed MOU on partnership of “Upcycle food waste into free-range chickens and eggs” project, aiming to convert organic waste into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer for plants and produce feed that serves as an abundant source of protein for livestock, poultry and aquatic products.

Mondelez Kinh Do supports circular economy business
The project is carried out in 2022 – 2023 with total budget of $30,000 funded by Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam.

With the fund, Green Connect is expected to increase its waste treatment capacity from 500kg/day to 30 tons/day (equivalent to 5,400 tons in the second half of 2022), as a result enables to produce 3,000 - 5,000 free-range chicken eggs per day and helps reduce the cost of free-cage eggs.

The project also allows Green Connect to collect food waste from Mondelez Kinh Do's Binh Duong plant with a volume from five tons per month for processing into animal feed.

Bui Khanh Nguyen, country manager, corporate and government affairs of Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam, stated that: “As an enterprise pursuing sustainable growth, Mondelez Kinh Do has made constant efforts to promote environmental impact reduction and waste treatment. We support the sustainable model of Green Connect's Larva Yum project to help our partner achieve their goal of waste recycling.”

This meaningful project will also contribute to promoting the circular economy, help to create long-term value for businesses, the environment, the society, and more importantly, help them to reach Mondelez Kinh Do’s long-term goal of becoming a sustainable snacking company in Vietnam.

Huynh Hanh Phuc, CEO and founder of Green Connect, said: “I have faith in the fact that the use of more cage-free chicken eggs in its production will inspire many other factories and chicken farms to follow in Vietnam. The Larva Yum project is expected to inspire many local movements to upcycle trash into more valuable materials via circular economy approach.”

Organic waste generated by restaurants, schools, industrial kitchens and wholesale agricultural markets currently accounts for 75 per cent of total waste nationwide.

These leftovers and by-products at the end of the day will be discarded in garbage bags and collected by the environmental sanitation services or urban environmental companies, then burned or buried, causing a huge of energy waste and environmental pollution. The need to find a sustainable solution that focuses on upcycling food waste rather than simple disposal for landfills has therefore become essential more than ever.

As a solution, Green Connect has applied digital and bio technology to solve sustainability issues in agriculture and environment. Larva Yum – a project that uses black soldier fly larvae to process organic waste into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer - is one of its initiatives.

It can help reduce organic waste generated in Ho Chi Minh City, particularly by restaurants in the city through food waste collection and applying an innovative model in which the waste is fermented with probiotics then feeded black soldier fly larvae. The outputs will be larvae, frass and larval extracts.

It also creates free-range chicken and eggs from black soldier fly larvae and herb, bran, corn fermented with probiotics.

The project creates a strong message about the environment, organic waste, sustainable agriculture, and become a model of organic waste treatment for people, especially the young generations, to follow thereby helping raise their awareness of environmental sustainability.

As a member of the Packaging Recycling Organization Vietnam (PRO Vietnam), and as part of Mondelez International, Mondelez Kinh Do set goal of designing 100 per cent recyclable and reusable packaging across its product portfolio by 2025.

95 per cent of Mondelez Kinh Do’s total packaging now, including both plastic and non-plastic, is recyclable and reusable. 95 per cent packages of Kinh Do's mooncake products are made from kraft paper and 100% mooncake trays made from recycled PET plastic.

It also start replacing thermal fuels (e.g., natural gas, diesel, gasoline) with “green” alternatives; implement water and food waste reduction across the supply chain.

With commitment to sustainable business growth in Vietnam, Mondelez Kinh Do was listed in VCCI Top 100 sustainable companies in 2021 (based on the Corporate Sustainability Index - CSI), Top 10 Reputable Food Companies for three consecutive years (2019 – 2021) announced by Vietnam Report in collaboration with VietnamNet; Amcham HCM Cares Award 2021, and Best-practice Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs awarded by Amcham Hanoi for four consecutive years.