Greek yogurt has gained popularity over the past few years, it is thought of as a faddy low-fat, high-protein treat, but the waste from strained yogurt can be extremely hazardous to the environment, Modern Farmer reported.
For every three to four ounces of milk, companies like Chobani can only produce one ounce of the creamy strained yogurt, the rest of it becomes acid whey.
Whey is a thin, runny waste product that is illegal to dump. If the whey gets into the water system it will vastly deplete the oxygen, this could destroy aquatic life over large areas.
In the past, whey spills from cheese have killed tens of thousands of fish.
The Greek yogurt market has become a $2 billion operation, and has nearly tripled since 2007. The Northeast, primarily New York, produced up to 150 million gallons of acid whey last year.
Chobani is so desperate to get rid of the waste that they pay farmers to take it off their hands. The farmers then incorporate it into feed for the farm animals.
Rejman, a 37-year-old dairy farmer with a Cornell animal science degree got a random call from Chobani a few years ago and decided to start accepting the whey.
He mixes the substance with silage to feed to the farm's 3,300 cows, combines it with manure for fertilizer, and even converts some of it into biogas to make electricity.
Rejman does have trouble disposing of all the waste, if he incorporates too much into the cow's feed it turns to mush, which makes waste management even harder. He admitted that there is no easy solution to dealing with the seas of waste.
"How do you handle all the whey without screwing up the environment?" he said.
After the first ever Yogurt Summit convened by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year, state and industry officials reached out to Dave Barbano, a dairy scientist at Cornell for help.
Barbano, who specializes in filtration methods for separation and recovery of protein, believes there is usable protein in acid whey, and the use could be as an ingredient in baby formula. In order for this to be plausible Barbano must figure out a way to extract the protein in a way that is cost-efficient.
"There are a lot of people coming in and out of New York state looking at whether this is a good opportunity for investment," Barbano said.
The Greek yogurt industry has been secretive about the problem, so there have been no industry-wide statistical studies on it. Chobani has said that it sends more than 70 percent of its waste to farms for livestock feed.
