From Leftovers to Resource Recovery

What Thanksgiving Can Teach Us About Sustainability

Thanksgiving is a celebration built around abundance. A full table, shared meals, and time spent with the people we appreciate most. But when the holiday ends, many of us face a familiar question: What do we do with all these leftovers?
Surprisingly, that simple household dilemma mirrors one of the biggest challenges, and opportunities, in industrial sustainability: finding value in what’s left behind.

Just as we repurpose turkey into sandwiches or transform mashed potatoes into next-day croquettes, responsible industries rethink how to handle materials that were once treated as waste. With strategic recovery processes, those materials can be transformed into something useful again. And that connection offers a relatable way to talk about how resource recovery works at scale.

The Lesson: Waste Doesn’t Have to Be the End

Every Thanksgiving, millions of households discover the benefits of creatively reusing food. A dish that could have landed in the trash instead becomes tomorrow’s lunch. A pile of vegetable scraps may head to the compost bin, feeding next season’s garden.

These are small, everyday acts, but they reflect a powerful principle:
Waste is often just a resource waiting for the right process.

Industries face the same choice. Materials left over from production, cleaning, or manufacturing don’t necessarily need to be discarded. They can often be reclaimed, treated, recycled, or transformed into something new. The same mindset that helps reduce holiday waste can help protect natural resources, conserve energy, and support a healthier planet.

How Industrial Resource Recovery Works (in Human Terms)

Here’s where the Thanksgiving analogy becomes helpful.

Imagine your leftovers:

• You evaluate what can be reused (edible turkey becomes sandwiches; broth is made from bones).
• You separate materials (what’s compostable vs. what gets stored vs. what gets tossed).
• You use a process to transform them (heating, seasoning, repackaging).

Industrial waste streams follow a similar pattern, just with far more complex chemistry and operational rigor.

Many manufacturing and industrial facilities generate byproducts:  oils, sludges, wastewater, chemical residues, solids. Through specialized treatment, these “leftovers” can be:

• Cleaned and recycled back into the production cycle
• Recovered as fuels or secondary materials
• Filtered so water can be safely reused or discharged
• Repurposed into new products or inputs

What would otherwise be environmental liabilities become new assets,  much like leftovers becoming tomorrow’s meal.

Why This Matters: Gratitude Through Stewardship

Thanksgiving encourages us to appreciate the resources we have. Extending that mindset to industrial operations means recognizing the responsibility businesses hold in reducing environmental impact.

When industries choose to recover materials instead of disposing of them:

• Less waste goes to landfills
• Waterways are better protected
• Energy demand decreases (recycling often uses less energy than producing something new)
• Communities benefit from cleaner, safer environments
• Natural resources are conserved

Just as using leftovers shows respect for the food on our table, resource recovery shows respect for the materials, energy, and ecosystems that support industrial activity.

It’s gratitude expressed through action.

A Call to Businesses: Think Like a Thanksgiving Chef

This season, as people across the country turn their leftovers into something delicious, businesses can take the same approach with their operational byproducts.

Ask questions such as:

• What materials are being discarded that could instead be reused?
• Which waste streams contain components that could be recovered?
• Where might recycling or treatment reduce costs and environmental impact?
• How can the organization make sustainability an everyday practice, not just a seasonal message?

A small shift in mindset, like seeing “waste” as a starting point rather than an endpoint, can lead to meaningful environmental gains and long-term operational efficiency.

Food for Thought

Thanksgiving reminds us to appreciate what we have. But it also offers a deeper, often overlooked lesson: with a little creativity and the right process, abundance doesn’t have to become waste.

By treating industrial byproducts with the same intentionality we give to holiday leftovers, businesses can make a tangible, positive impact on the environment, not just during Thanksgiving, but throughout the year.