GM says cardboard and packing materials are baled at its manufacturing sites for recycling.
General Motors has added 27 operations that do not send waste to a landfill after recycling or reusing, bringing its total to 142 landfill-free facilities worldwide.
The company’s waste-tracking efforts span nearly 25 years, according to global waste reduction manager John Bradburn. The company says it has more facilities that contribute zero waste to a landfill than any other automaker.
On average, the automaker’s 79 landfill-free facilities reuse, recycle or compost roughly 96 percent of their waste and convert 4 percent to energy, the company said in a statement Wednesday. The automaker’s operations in Canada, South America and Mexico are now 100 percent landfill-free.
“We aspire to be that zero waste company holistically everywhere,” said Bradburn. “Part of that sequence of attaining that goal is to obviously get this done in certain regions and then grow it from there.”
Over half of the company’s manufacturing operations contribute zero waste to a landfill, said Bradburn.
“There are some regulatory hurdles that we need to work through relative to certain materials, as it relates to environmental regulation, and we’re working through that,” said Bradburn. “As well through what we call material substitutions and others.”
Some obstacles the program faces relate to local infrastructure, and not incorporating recycle, or reuse, re-purposing technologies available in that specific area, Bradburn said, which the company tackles by sharing best practices and mentoring companies to accommodate those materials.
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