Though many car manufacturers are focusing their efforts on producing greener vehicles, General Motors has gone one step further in its environmental push.
The US-based car manufacturer has made 52 per cent of its worldwide facilities landfill-free meaning that all waste generated from normal operations is reused, recycled or converted to energy. In fact, GM now has 76 landfill-free facilities and has achieved a global operations commitment it set in 2008 to convert 50 per cent of its 145 plants to landfill-free status by the end of 2010.
Its goal has been achieved with GM employees focusing on decreasing the amount of waste generated and then working to recycle unavoidable waste. Over the last 12 months alone, GM has recycled or reused 2.5million tons of waste materials at its plants worldwide and it is estimated that the company has eliminated 8.4million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from entering the atmosphere.
The plants monitor and report monthly on how they perform against waste reduction goals and this data reveals areas for improvement. On average, more than 97 per cent of waste materials from GM’s zero-landfill plants are recycled or reused while less than three per cent is converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities.
A lot of the waste comes full circle and is recycled into plant supplies. For example, cardboard shipping materials are recycled into sound-absorber material; plastic caps and shipping aids are converted into radiator shrouds; tyres from vehicle performance testing are shredded and used in the manufacturing of air and water baffles; while paint sludge is turned into plastic material and used for shipping containers durable enough to hold Chevrolet Volt and Cruze engines.
