PROREC
Recovering More than Waste

In 1996, Stéphane Le Moine and his brother were looking for a way to lower the cost of feeding their livestock. They began recovering food products such as wheat, permeate and cookie waste for their own use. What started as a practical solution on the farm eventually became PROREC, a commercial recovery business working with food manufacturers to find useful destinations for their byproducts.

That experience continues to shape how PROREC approaches recovery. Rather than automatically treating a residual as waste, it starts by examining what remains in the material and how it can still be used.

Where the Value Still Exists

That thinking informs the recovery hierarchy PROREC uses to guide its decisions. Reuse within the production process comes first. Where that is not possible, suitable materials can be directed toward food for people, livestock feed ingredients in order to make the best use of nutritional value and other recovery routes as last alternatives such as biomethanization, industrial uses or composting. Disposal comes further down the hierarchy.

“The first thing at the top of the pyramid is to be able to reuse it in the process. Instead of wasting it, the company should reuse it,” says Le Moine.

The hierarchy provides PROREC with a framework for determining where a material can deliver the most nutritional and practical value. It assesses the material and its potential use, considers regulatory and quality requirements and builds the practical chain needed to make the recovery route work, including equipment, transportation, traceability and access to a reliable end market. The model connects two needs, helping manufacturers reduce disposal costs and improve environmental performance while giving farmers and other end users access to useful alternative resources.

Animal feed remains an important application. Suitable food-industry byproducts can be processed into livestock feed ingredients. A dairy example shows how the model works. PROREC recovers whey permeate from dairy plants and cheese factories and sends it to dairy farms. Cows consume it alongside grain and silage, producing milk that can be returned to the cheese factory. The permeate also contains substantial water, giving farmers another resource for their livestock rather than relying entirely on existing water reserves.

The example shows why recovery is not simply about moving material away from a food plant. A residual can retain several useful properties, and those properties can determine where it belongs next.

When Recovery Starts Before Waste

PROREC’s role can also extend into the factory itself. Its automated systems identify the products entering its equipment and provide suppliers with detailed reports. Those reports can reveal production-line problems, including issues related to training or line performance. Manufacturers can use the information to address underlying causes and reduce the residual material they generate.

In some cases, the best recovery outcome is to prevent the residual from being created at all. That creates an unusual commercial dynamic. If a customer improves its production and produces less residual material, PROREC has less material to recover. The company still considers that a positive result.

“The purpose of the factory is not to make waste. It’s to make good products for humans,” says Yannick Morel, VP Operations, PROREC.

PROREC says its activity results in approximately 45,000 tons of avoided GHG emissions each year, a figure evaluated annually by a third party. Le Moine also notes that PROREC has had B Corp certification since last year. The company is strengthening its presence in Ontario and the U.S. while developing additional partnerships across Eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. Demand for recovered products is high, making access to sufficient co-products an important constraint. Building regional networks can help consolidate volumes and reduce transportation costs.

For PROREC, recovery is not simply about finding another destination for foodindustry residuals. It is about determining what value remains, preserving useful properties such as nutrition and water, returning suitable materials to productive use and helping manufacturers prevent avoidable losses at the source.