Tackling Waste Through Circularity: Waste Management

Guided by our Responsible Agriculture Charter, we take proactive steps in minimising pollution, hazards, and waste production to ensure that our operations minimise harm towards the ecosystem. By capturing and converting methane from palm oil mill effluent into biogas, we significantly reduce GHG emissions. Community engagement is vital in addressing issues like open burning and improper waste disposal to mitigate transboundary haze.

To minimise landfill waste, we focus on reducing paper use, installing recycling bins, and conducting awareness sessions based on the principles of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (3R).

Comprehensive monitoring and management practices are in place to ensure compliance with environmental regulations, while minimising our ecological impact. We routinely check our scheduled waste to ensure full compliance with RSPO requirements, Malaysia’s Environment Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005, and comparable regulations in all countries where we operate. Regular and detailed monitoring of waste storage and inventory is a crucial aspect of health, safety, and environment (HSE) management across all levels of our organisation.

Effluent Management

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the primary organic waste generated during the production of palm oil. SD Guthrie does not discharge untreated effluent into water streams as it will cause considerable environmental harm.

Palm oil refinery effluent (PORE) is wastewater from the refining of crude palm oil (CPO). PORE treatment usually involves a chemical process to remove oil, grease and inorganic substances before further biological treatment prior to its discharge.

Our robust management systems ensure all our mills and refinery operations are fitted with Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment System (POMETS) and Industrial Effluent Treatment Systems (IETS) that support the management of waste and comply with national environmental standards.

We continuously monitor the quality of discharged wastewater and wastewater treatment performance at our upstream operations. We also ensure that biological oxygen demand (BOD) remains below regulatory thresholds in the regions where we operate - Malaysia, Indonesia, and PNG and Solomon Islands.

Responsible Production and Circularity

At Guthrie, we follow best practices for managing by-products, recovering and repurposing them whenever possible. Inorganic waste is disposed of through landfills or incineration, while organic waste, such as spent bleaching earth and sludge, is reused as fertiliser or repurposed for construction materials.

We continue to use palm oil biomass including shells and fibres in mill biomass boilers.

Some examples include:

Mulched empty fruit bunch (EFB) and treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) as organic fertilizers in our plantations.
Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE), a solid waste generated from the oil refining process, is repurposed into eco-friendly construction materials and recycled to recover residual oils.
Palm kernel expeller (PKE), a byproduct from mill operation. In FY2025, 129,016 tonnes of PKE were used to produce animal feed, contributing further to our resource optimisation and waste reduction.
Demonstrating our progress in driving a circular economy, we collect used cooking oil (UCO) through our UCO Buy Back Programme.

Carbon Emission & Reduction

Monitoring Deforestation

Renewable Energy