Rendering processes are processes used to convert the byproducts of meat and poultry processing into marketable products, including edible and inedible fats and proteins for agricultural and industrial use. Materials rendered include viscera, meat scraps including fat, bone, blood, feathers, hatchery by-products (infertile eggs, dead embryos, etc.), and dead animals. Lard and foodgrade tallow are examples of edible rendering products. Inedible rendering products include industrial and animal feedgrade fats, meat and poultry by-product meals, feather meal, dried blood, and hydrolyzed hair. Rendering plants that operate in conjunction with animal slaughterhouses or poultry processing plants are called integrated rendering plants. Plants that collect their raw materials from a variety of off-site sources are called independent rendering plants. Independent plants obtain animal by-product materials from a variety of sources, including butcher shops, supermarkets, restaurants, fast-food chains, poultry processors, slaughterhouses, farms, ranches, feedlots, and animal shelters (USEPA 1995).