Milcobel wants to stop using tap water from 2030

They are already extracting water from milk, and soon they will also be using treated waste water from the neighbourhood. They are going to treat that into drinking water themselves with a new installation. An investment of one and a half million euros.

The water is reused to clean pipes and tankers or as cooling water for the installations. Not in the food itself, although that could also be the case. It is the next step in the reuse of water. They have been extracting water from milk for years at Milcobel.

Ruben Puype, Milcobel: “On the one hand, we make milk powder. By evaporating milk, you get water vapor that will condense and you get water that we can use. On the other hand, we make a lot of mozzarella here, a side production is whey, and by filtering that whey we can we also extract a lot of water from it.”

In this way, and later with the treated waste water, they will reach 60 percent of the total water consumption. 40 percent is still tap water, and by 2030 that too will disappear.

On the site in Langemark-Poelkapelle, they use one and a half million cubic meters of water annually, which is comparable to a municipality of 30,000 inhabitants such as Harelbeke, Wevelgem or Knokke-Heist.