Eleven more General Motors’ facilities have achieved landfill-free status. The company’s running total is 122 manufacturing and non-manufacturing operations spanning Asia, Europe and South and North America that recycle, reuse or convert to energy all waste from daily operations.
GM’s new landfill-free facilities include:
The addition of these 11 facilities to landfill-free status helps GM avoid more than 600,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions.
GM says employee awareness is key in the drive to landfill-free. Colmotores Assembly in Colombia launched awareness campaigns that engaged employees in reducing waste and sorting it correctly. GM’s Shanghai headquarters, a LEED-Gold facility, formed a “Green Team” spanning IT, finance, facilities, R&D and supply chain departments to identify recycling and waste reduction opportunities.
All of these facilities treat their waste as resources out of place and employ a number of methods to give them a second or third life.
GM’s goal is to achieve 125 landfill-free sites globally by 2020. The company already has met its 10 percent total waste reduction commitment – seven years ahead of schedule.
The company has also published a downloadable blueprint, The Business Case for Zero Waste, intended to help businesses of all sizes and industries reduce waste and create efficiencies.