In pursuit of sustainability, companies sending waste to La Crosse

In 2007, the global food and beverage company Mars Inc. established ambitious goals of eliminating fossil fuel use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste from its operations.

As part of that initiative, each of its facilities was expected to quit sending waste to landfills by 2015.

For the company’s pet food factory in Tomah, that meant brainstorming ways to reduce and reuse waste. They installed bailers to collect cardboard, plastic and aluminum, as well as office paper and other recyclables.

Over just three years, the plant cut its landfill waste by more than 70 percent — from 382 tons in 2012 to just 109...