Recycling water (also known as water reuse or water reclamation), according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is the practice of reclaiming water from a variety of sources, treating it, and reusing it for beneficial purposes such as agriculture and irrigation, groundwater replenishment, industrial processes, and environmental restoration. The EPA states, “Water reuse can provide alternatives to existing water supplies and be used to enhance water security, sustainability and resilience.”

These benefits, as referenced by the EPA, are at the focus of the Nicholas Meat Sustainable Resource Facility (SRF). This first-of-its-kind facility for the U.S. meat processing industry features award-winning waste-to-energy and water reuse technology and is being constructed on a 40-plus acre site, located across Hwy. 80 from the main Nicholas Meat facility by Loganton, Penn.

Process water, which is water that has been used in the processing facility, will be piped from the plant to the SRF to undergo advanced treatment including biological denitrification, disinfection and reverse osmosis. This will enable Nicholas Meat to reuse up to 90 percent of the water within our meat processing operations.

Learn more about water treatment and reuse, as well as the processes of reverse osmosis, nitrification and denitrification, through this information brief Nicholas Meat Information Brief: Recycling Water.