Starting in 2016, AMPC has funded the making of a series of short films on the meat industry most recent environmental innovations. MINTRAC has coordinated the filmed projects as part of the Meat Industry Environment Network project.
The primary audience is meat industry environmental managers and engineers. They are responsible for the operation and management of environmental systems and technologies at their companies. As well as this, they are responsible for researching and developing new concepts, methodologies and understandings to improve the environmental sustainability of their plant and the wider Australian red meat processing industry.
The aim of the films is to showcase new technologies and initiatives being undertaken by meat processing plants. They will assist meat industry environmental managers and engineers with possible project ideas as well as positively promote the industry’s ability to manage its environmental responsibilities.
HW Greenham & Sons Pty Ltd represents six generations of involvement in the Australian meat industry and incorporates HW Greenham & Sons Pty Ltd and Greenham Tasmania Pty Ltd. Both companies are wholly Australian owned and operated.
From a sole trader family business in the mid-1860s, HW Greenham & Sons Pty Ltd has grown in to a multi-million dollar meat export business with buying and export centres in Tongala (north-eastern Victoria) and Greenham Tasmania Pty Ltd at Smithton in Tasmania’s pristine north-west.
Greenham Tasmania Pty Ltd was established in 2002 as an associated company of HW Greenham & Sons Pty Ltd when the parent company bought the failed Blue Ribbon Meat Works in Smithton, North Western Tasmania and refurbished the plant to international export standards.
Today the company is the biggest employer in the area with more than 180 staff and supplies high quality table beef products to Japan, Korea, SE Asia and the USA. The Smithton plant is not accredited for export to the EU.
Greenham Tasmania Pty Ltd sells its prime boxed beef into the Australian and export markets under the Cape Grim Beef, Pure Black Angus and Greenham Natural brands. The company processes more than 20,000 tonnes of beef annually and has a supplier catchment of some 3,000 properties extending across Tasmania, including King and Flinders Island.
Greenham Tasmania has established a unique method of steam generation which has reduced carbon emissions to almost zero.
After a $1.3 million investment and several years of refinement, Greenham is now burning 100% renewable pyrethrum briquettes in order to power the plant’s main steam boiler.
The plant sources pyrethrum, a 100% renewable resource, from local farmers. Pyrethrum is grown to produce a natural insecticide, and is part of the many local mixed-farming operations. The extracted pyrethrum is used in aerosols for head lice treatments and flea control products for pets.
The project was undertaken in partnership with Botanical Resources Australia, Industrial Drive, Ulverstone TAS 7315. Botanical Resources Australia is the global leader in the production of the 100% natural insecticide active, pyrethrins, extracted from Australian grown pyrethrum daisies.
Greenham uses the by-product of the manufacturing process, pyrethrum marc, as a green waste bio fuel which is burnt in the plant’s boiler. Greenham had to make some modifications to the boiler system, including installing a mew filtration system, modifying the ‘flinger’ to throw material into the boiler, and installing an economiser.
Steam production at the Smithton plant is essential for sterilisation of equipment, cleaning and also powering the rendering cookers on a daily basis.
Primary source: Beef Central
