As a good housefather, W. van der Meer en Zonen B.V. deals in a responsible way with its people, the chickens to be slaughtered, the materials to be used and the environment. As a processor of the residual product of the egg industry, the ‘spent laying hens’, we are fully aware of our responsibility concerning the possible consequences of our company for people, chickens and the environment. The third generation of the Van der Meer family (as owners) wants to minimise the impact of the family business on these points as much as possible.
Our responsibility for good working conditions (ARBO) of our permanent employees and our responsibility for the environment are taken care of in our quality system. There are clear instructions for personal safety and the Risk Inventory and Evaluation procedure ensures that an RI&E is carried out and a new ARBO year plan is drawn up each year.
ARBO and the environment are also key points of our management. All our offal, including intestine packages, feathers, blood, low-risk (Cat3) and high-risk material (Cat2) are taken to the destructor to be further processed into usable products in a responsible way.
During the last century, our wastewater treatment plant was already completed with a biological water treatment. The water used for our slaughter process is first purified in several steps. As the final step, there is a biological water treatment (Aerobic). It is only after purification that this process water is discharged into the sewerage system. Sludge produced during the purification process is discharged to be converted into green energy in a fermenter.
We are also affiliated to the Dutch Packaging Covenant and to the German Duales system (previously Grune Punkt).
As a slaughterhouse, we voluntarily join in the multiyear agreement (Meerjarenafspraak, MJA) Energy (now the MJA-3). Any savings are carried out according to an approved Energy Saving Plan (Energiebesparingsplan, EBP).
The monitoring programmes that are part of the MJA programmes show that as a poultry processor, W. van der Meer and Sons Ltd. is among the lowest energy-consuming slaughterhouses in the Netherlands, despite the fact that nearly all products are dispatched deep-frozen.
