RB Achieves Zero Manufacturing Waste to Landfill in ENA

Health and hygiene company RB, whose brands include Calgon, Woolite, Clearasil and others, has achieved zero manufacturing waste to landfill in Europe and North America.

Outside of this region, more than 60 percent of RB’s factories globally have achieved zero manufacturing waste to landfill, the company says.

RB’s sustainability strategy, called betterbusiness, includes targets to send zero waste to landfill and reduce waste per unit of production by 10 percent by 2020. The company’s Europe and North America sites have hit the zero waste goal five years early while the company has reduced waste per unit by 7 percent globally since 2013.

The company launched its betterbusiness strategy in 2012.

In 2014, the company made waste a focus of its sustainability plan. To accelerate progress and create a culture of zero waste, RB:

• Created a network of waste champions and established a “Buddy-Up” program, partnering zero manufacturing waste to landfill factories with those that have not yet met the target. The company says this will ensure that knowledge is transferred and the zero waste culture will continue to be embedded across the business.
• Launched a “Race to Zero” campaign, which included a series of waste events encouraging competition amongst sites.
• Issued a global employee challenge to crowdsource innovative waste reuse and recycling ideas.
• Completed waste audits.

Over the first six months of this year, RB has diverted more than 32,000 metric tons of waste from landfill, and reduced the total percentage of waste sent to landfill to 15.6 percent versus 19.7 percent in 2013. As part of its work to reduce waste to landfill, RB has found a number of alternative revenue streams and disposal options:

• A very large site, Nowy Dwor in Poland, has seen savings of £300,000 per year from initiatives to achieve zero waste to landfill.
• At RB’s Baddi site in India, Dermi cool talcum powder waste is being used as a raw material for the production of plastic granules.
• At RB’s Bangpakong site in Thailand, wastewater treatment sludge is being turned into concrete blocks used in local schools.

Last week GM announced that 11 more of its facilities have achieved landfill-free status. The company’s running total is 122 manufacturing and non-manufacturing operations.