Last week, General Motors announced that 62 of its manufacturing plants have achieved “zero landfill” status by recycling or reusing all normal plant wastes. (A chart listing the plants is available here.)
This significant achievement means that 43 percent of GM’s global manufacturing facilities no longer send any production waste to landfills. In 2008, the company announced that it wanted to convert half of its manufacturing facilities to zero landfill facilities by the end of 2010. As of this month, GM has met 87 percent of that goal.
On average, more than 97 percent of waste materials from GM’s zero landfill plants are recycled or reused and about three percent is converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities replacing fossil fuels. All in all, more than 2 million tons of waste materials –including 650,000 tons of scrap metal, 16,600 tons of wood, 21,600 tons of cardboard, and 3,600 tons of plastic –will be recycled or reused at GM plants worldwide this year alone.
An additional 45,000 tons will be converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities.
According to GM, even the smallest piece of waste is put to a productive reuse. For example: (more…)
Businesses in Cleveland are out in front, pioneering what some are calling the “next green wave:” large-scale composting of food waste.
