The Alliance meat company says a new automated rendering plant at its Lorneville site near Invercargill will significantly reduce energy use as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
Building of the plant is finished and the company is now installing the latest rendering equipment.
Processing general manager John Brader says the $13 million facility will turn meat waste from sheep processing into high quality meal and tallow for export. It is due to start producing in November.
Mr Brader says there will be two further stages in the rendering plant development in the next two years.
He says meat meal from Lorneville is included in pet food products in the United States and Europe, and most of the tallow, or pure fat, is sent to China to be used in soaps and solvents.
