SEP 06

Sometimes when big traditional companies announce good news about ways they’re going to reduce waste, the question arises of shouldn’t they have done this earlier? That’s what I wonder with General Motor Corp. announcement today that within a year and a half, 50% of their facilities will be recycling virtually all of their waste.

GM says by the end of 2010, half of its major global manufacturing operations will be land-fill free. The facilities plan to achieve that landfill-free status when all production waste or garbage is recycled or reused. So far, the company says 33 of its operations recently reached that status for a total of 43.

At the landfill-free plants, more than 96% of waste materials are recycled or reused and 3% of that is converted to energy at waste-to-energy plants.

Doing good will help the company’s bottom line. In a statement, GM says as a result of its global recycling efforts, recycled metal scraps are approaching $1 billion in annual revenue. In North America alone, selling off its recycled cardboard, wood, oil, plastic and other materials added $16 million in revenue.

This on top of playing around with solar, getting rid of truck and SUV plants, and investing in ethanol technologies among many other eco-friendly moves, shows that GM has sustainability in mind, at least when it comes to sustaining their business, which works just fine for us.

GM has about 160 manufacturing facilities worldwide, including joint ventures. It plans to make 80 of them landfill-free.

Via GM, Canadian Press; Photo via mandj98

Comments (7)

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It's a matter of money.
written by TheGeek, September 07, 2008

"The question arises of shouldn’t they have done this earlier?"

They would have had there been any money in it. Up until the last couple of years it has been cheaper to toss a lot of the waste then spend the time and money to try in recycle. Not only is energy and getter more expense but as landfills get fuller dumping costs are going up as well. So it has gotten to a point where the ROI has made so that going landfill free improves the bottom line. The simple fact is that most big business in the US today don't do anything unless it has an impact on the bottom line.

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Or, an attempt at good PR
written by Nilay Patel, September 07, 2008

Call me a cynic, BUT... at the rate they are going, they will probably manufacturer 50% less cars in 2010 too. Wonder if this is only a way of spinning the truth.

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Agreed, however...
written by Evan, September 07, 2008

@Nilay: Hilarious!

@TheGeek: I heard about GM reducing it's waste stream more than ten years ago (car radio packaging), so while you're right about most companies, this may be different.

Isn't this good news overall though? My major disappointment with GM has been that they make sucky cars. Shouldn't an american company be making the best cars in the world?

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...
written by Richard, September 08, 2008

Likely because they will be closing half their plants.

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An attractive option
written by Adam, September 09, 2008

With the use of Plasma Converters GM can get rid of 100% of its waste in a completely pollution free and cost effective manner. In addition, in so doing, they will be able to retrieve an enormous amount of clean energy in the form of hydrogen, ethanol, and/or Plasma Converted Gas (a synthetic fuel gas similar to natural gas). Plasma Converters are from 1,000 to 100,000 times cleaner than current EPA emissions standards and they routinely achieve a 300:1 volume reduction. Where Plasma Converters are in play landfills and incinerators are things of the past. Thank God because there is some truly foul stuff coming out of those monstrosities. Material that is fed into the machine is actually not a waste; rather it is a feedstock. This is due to the fact that the end products are all valuable commodity products. Don't take my word for it; look it up for yourself at "howstuffworks.com" or somewhere like that. This technology couldn't have come at a better time. Wouldn't it be nice to get our ethanol from our garbage and keep our corn for food?

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Could have been 100% if they hadn't crus
written by Patty, September 12, 2008

I'd like to know how they recycled all of those EV1 electric cars they seized back from their happy leasees after they crushed them.

I agree with Nilay - sounds like a PR job to me.

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GM is making themselves believe that the
written by Ray, September 15, 2008

No amount of PR work can erase the impression of most motorist on how GM could have turned the tables and led in the being the greenest car company on earth. They have themselves to thank for having killed the EV1, the first successful pure electric vehicle that was way ahead of its time. They should have recycled the executives together with the crushed EV1's and presented them to the oil companies as a tribute to their being one of their loyal followers.....

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