Subaru Among Companies Nearing Zero-Waste

Subaru says that 99.8 percent of the refuse from its Indiana plant - on track to produce 180,000 cars this year - is recycled or reused so it doesn't go to a landfill, including about five percent that goes to a waste-to-energy plant that burns waste to make steam to heat Indianapolis' downtown, USA Today reports. In the process, the company cuts millions of dollars a year in costs.

The company says that a big part of the effort, and a big factor in cutting costs as well as waste, was persuading suppliers to take back packaging or other items removed during the automaking process and find ways to reuse them.

What other companies are doing:

• Toyota says it has a 97 percent zero-landfill status average over its 14 assembly plants.
• Copy-machine maker Ricoh has been zero-landfill at its U.S. plants since 2002.
• Anheuser-Busch has been able to recycle 99 percent of the solid waste generated at its 12 breweries.
• Safeway says it diverts 85 percent of its solid waste from landfills in the state.
• Target says it has cut waste by 70 percent.