UCS Study Uncovers Tyson Foods' Massive Pollution Footprint

A new study shows Tyson Foods, the second-largest meat processing company in the U.S., dumped more than 371 million pounds of pollutants into U.S. waterways during a five-year period between 2018 and 2022. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), contaminants were present in approximately 87 billion gallons of wastewater that was dumped directly into natural water sources commonly used for drinking water, fishing, farming, and recreation.

The UCS report indicates that Tyson wastewater included various amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil, and cyanide, in addition to blood, bacteria, and animal feces. The data is collected from 41 Tyson slaughterhouses and food processing plants, which is just one-third of the total number of wastewater-producing operations the company has in the U.S., and represents just 2% of the total national total.