Half of GM’s plants are landfill-free

Seventy-six of General Motors’ 145 plants are landfill-free, surpassing their goal of having half of their plants at zero waste by the end of this year. On average, 97% of waste gets recycled or reused to make new parts, while 3% gets incinerated to produce energy. Overall plants have recycled or reused 2.5 million tons of waste this year, and GM has made over $2.5 billion from selling waste for recycling since 2007.

Cardboard is turned into sound-absorbing material for headliner in the Buick Lacrosse; plastic caps and other plastic shipping pieces are turned into radiator shrouds for the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra; and recycled tires are used to make baffles – parts under cars that direct air and water.

All GM plants track their waste and produce monthly reports on what waste they’re creating, and what they are and aren’t recycling/reusing. Plants already recycle 90% of their waste, and the challenge now is to find new uses for the last bits of waste that are still being sent to landfills.

John Bradburn, who manages waste initiatives are GM, said ideas come from employees at all levels, suppliers, component makers and beyond. All plants have environmental engineers, and some have people from Waste Management and other contract sources that work as resource managers focused on finding alternatives for waste to landfill.

GM plans to announce their new waste goals in early 2011, according to Sharon Basel from GM’s environment and energy communications department. To read the full story please click here.

Do you think the U.S. auto industry will follow suit after GM? How bold do you think GM’s waste goals will be for next year? Discuss!

Hats Off to The Taylor Companies!

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting with the President & CEO of The Taylor Companies, based in Bedford, Ohio, and taking a tour of their manufacturing facility.  Established in 1816, Taylor’s rich heritage spans seven generations in a single family, positioning it as the 28th oldest family business in the United States.  Taylor also is the oldest furniture manufacturer in the United States.  Among the most exciting things I heard and saw while there were the many ways Taylor is applying sustainability to every aspect of its manufacturing processes. 

Dumpster Diving

I recently read an article and watched a video about Burt’s Bees recent “dumpster dive” event. The dive was organized to teach employees about waste reduction and…I think it worked!  The employees literally went through every inch of recently disposed waste.

This news was interesting to me because BrownFlynn did a waste audit last year and did some dumpster diving (thanks Emily!) to evaluate our company habits. This exercise helped us develop our strategy for recycling and waste reduction. The process, as disgusting as it might be, works—your company should try it!

By the way, Burt’s Bees is a waste reduction champion. They recycle white paper, mixed plastic, glass, aluminum, wood, corrugated cardboard, shrink wrap chipboard and fiberboard. They also send certain organic by-products from our production processes off-site for compost.

How Green Companies are Cashing In (part 1 – Terracycle)

This is the first in a series of posts that will examine how 5 companies–that were highlighted in the recent edition of Fortune Small Business–have focused on sustainable enterprises in surprisingly pragmatic ways in order to weather the economic storm.

The first best practice highlight is of Terracycle:

Entrepreneur Tom Szaky and his company Terracycle have managed to use innovative recycling (spinning trash into consumer goods like Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold) to double their revenue every year since 2004.  Fortune Small Business claims that Terracycle’s sales are likely to hit $15 million in 2009.  In addition to being filmed for their new reality TV show, Garbage Moguls, the recycling firm’s 46 employees dream up ways to re-design and re-purpose the mountains of trash in their 250,000-square-foot warehouse.  A few of their creations include pencil cases from Capri Sun juice pouches, picture frames and clocks from circuit boards, kites from Oreo wrappers, and fertilizer called worm poop in Coke bottles (sold at Home Depot, Target and Whole Foods).