How do you make waste valuable? Market leader Duynie proves that innovation and collaboration are key in the transition to a circular food industry. The Dutch based international company has been successfully searching for new ways to create value from industrial waste streams for decades.
Whether you are a Brewery, a French fry manufacturer or a starch & sweetener producer, you always have to deal with losses in your industrial process. Duynie calls these losses co-products, as they are valuable products that are created in addition to the main product. Such as side stream starch, potato peels, carrot pulp and brewers grains. These seemingly low value products are made valuable by the originally Dutch company Duynie.
It is not without reason that Creating New Value has been Duynie's mission since its foundation in 1968. CEO Jonathan Job explains: 'With Duynie we actually solve two problems. On the one hand, that of producers, our suppliers. These are companies from the food, beverage and biofuel industry throughout Europe. On the other hand, companies from completely different sectors and chains, such as livestock farmers who need affordable, nutritious animal feed, or food manufactures needing low carbon ingredients. Our role is to valorise co-products from manufacturers ensuring they can be optimally reused elsewhere. With the greatest possible new value.’
From residual flow to revenue model
Job uses concrete examples to clarify what this value creation looks like in practice. ‘Take beer brewers. They have used grain left over after their beer production. That grain does not have to be wasted, because it can serve perfectly well as animal feed, for example.’ But it can be even more innovative. ‘After years of research, we have now developed a technology that makes it possible to extract a protein from this grain that can even be used in high-quality food for people. In plant-based alternatives to meat, for example. In short, in this way, the beer brewery can not only reduce its waste and achieve its sustainability goals, but also extract higher economic value from its residual flows.’
This is how truly working circular business models are created, in which sectors help each other. Job speaks with pride and enthusiasm about this work. ‘When I started at Duynie about 13 years ago, I expected to get a fun, interesting job. But it quickly became more than that. I noticed how we at Duynie make a positive impact on the world. Through circularity, by making full use of the residual flows of companies such as Heineken and Cargill. At Duynie, we are really working on the future.’
The importance of innovation and collaboration
Duynie’s circular business model is scalable and has been working successfully for 5 decades. ‘When I started here, we transformed and valorised more than 2 million tonnes of co-products annually. We are now doing this with 6.5 million tonnes per year, with an ambition to grow to 10 million tonnes per year in 2030. We will also be active in every European country, helping us to accelerate our goal to valorise co-products to the highest value possible, such as food, whilst remaining the best in class service provider to our suppliers. An ideal end goal is a fully sustainable and circular food chain, in which nothing is wasted and everything is continuously reused.’
There is plenty of work to be done to realise these ambitions. Duynie focuses particularly on innovation and collaboration. Job: ‘Partnerships are crucial to us. With even more collaboration in supply chain, we can make an even greater impact. In all sectors, people are now convinced of the importance of sustainable business operations. At Duynie, we are happy to help companies with a tailor-made solution that adds value to their residual flows in many ways. We have a proven track record, with which we can demonstrate that sustainability and economic growth can go hand in hand.’
The full Dutch article was published in Trouw June 10th. Click on the button below to read it.