GM says Half Its Manufacturing Plants Will Eliminate Landfill Waste by End of 2010

GM says Half Its Manufacturing Plants Will Eliminate Landfill Waste by End of 2010

By John O'Dell September 5, 2008 Hoping to get some notice for a green-up campaign it has been conducting for some time now, General Motors Corp. today pledged that at least one half of its 161 manufacturing plants worldwide would be "landfill-free" facilities by the end of 2010.

The carmaker already has 43 landfill-free plants, most of them oversees, and said it will propel 80 more into that category in the next 28 months.

GM, while one of the most aggressive in pursuit of waste-free manufacturing, isn't alone in the auto world. Most automakers are aiming for landfill-free status for their factories and Subaru of America's Indiana plant earlier this year became the first U.S. auto assembly facility to gain that distinction.


In addition to the environmental value of keeping scrap metals, oils and other fluids, rubber, plastic, composites and the myriad other things that are left over form the auto-making process out of the world's trash heaps, there are financial benefits to be had in making a plant self-sufficient, refuse-wise.

Stuff that used to go to the dump must by recycled - either for reuse in its original form or to be turned into something else.

And recycling typically saves companies money because they've already paid for the raw materials when they are using waste from their manufacturing processes.

GM, for example, already is earning almost $1 billion in annual revenue from selling recycled metal from its factories. The company also expects to generate close to $16 million a year in North America alone from the sale of things such as recycled oil, wood and plastic.

Commenting on the environmental aspects of the program, GM manufacturing chief Gary Cowger said the company wants to "be a leader in finding solutions to the environmental issues facing our world."

The company says that more than 96 percent of waste materials are recycled or reused and the rest is converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities in its existing landfill-free plants. Eliminating waste to this degree is a GM manufacturing priority.

More than 3 million tons of waste materials will be recycled or reused by GM plants worldwide this year, said Cowger, whose official title is group vice president of global manufacturing and labor.

The automaker's waste elimination will reduce its global carbon dioxide emissions by 3.65 million metric tons this year, in addition to the unspecified CO2 reduction from cutting down on energy consumption by using recycled material.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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Photo by Jeffrey Sauger, courtesy of General Motors Corp.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.