Roughly 50% of an animal is considered inedible by Americans. Rendering reclaims this meat, bone and fat and transforms them into ingredients for countless products-Recycling 99% of this unwanted meat. So, rendering is really the “Original Recycling” – but instead of recycling water bottles into plastic fibers, or steel cans into car parts; rendering recycles unutilized meat, fat and bone into things like nutritious pet food and biofuels. Instead of wasting these leftovers through other disposal methods, renderers recycle the materials into 19 billion pounds of fat, oil and protein products. By reclaiming otherwise discarded meat and poultry leftovers, renderers make our food production footprint smaller. Note: This article was created by the North American Renderers Association, Inc.