Nestlé Engineers Milk Factory Down to Zero Water

By Charles Wark
Jun 15, 2015 4:20 PM ET

This article originally published on Greenbiz.com

Last year Nestlé opened its first “zero water” plant in Mexico, which extracts all the water it needs from milk used to manufacture dairy products.

Now, work is underway to transform the Nestlé USA milk factory in Modesto, Calif., into another zero water factory, meaning the plant will not use any local freshwater resources for its operations.

“Technology we have already deployed successfully elsewhere in the world to help address the challenges of water scarcity will improve our water use efficiency, relieving pressure on California’s water resources,” said Nestlé’s head of operations, José Lopez.

Dramatic reduction

The project should save nearly 63 million gallons (238,000 cubic meters) of water a year, equivalent to 71 percent of absolute withdrawals in 2014.

Around $7 million has been invested in the project, due to be completed by 2016.

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