American cheese is the undisputed GOAT for cheeseburgers. Not only is it just salty enough, but it also melts perfectly, making it the ideal component to any smash burger or bodega-style egg sammy. Hell, it’s even great on ramen.

The only problem? All those individually packaged slices of cheese generate plenty of plastic waste.

Of course, the cheese industry also faces an entirely different waste problem in the form of whey, the natural byproduct of cheesemaking. For every pound of cheese produced, there are also nine pounds of whey, making it a challenge for both large and small producers. In the past, folks would dump it into rivers and streams, which—shocker—wasn’t great for the environment. Once that was outlawed, companies got creative and used it in everything from protein powders and pharmaceutical products to animal feed and ethanol.