2012 Sustainability Report - Executive Summary - Waste Management

Achieving Zero
Waste to Landfill
with General Motors
General Motors has a global goal to send zero waste to landfill.
Many assembly plants have already met the challenge. GM’s
Fort Wayne, Indiana, plant employs more than 3,300 people and
produces 870 full-size pickup trucks each day. Using recycling,
waste-to-energy technology and other creative reuse programs,
Waste Management Sustainability Services (WMSS) helped the
plant become GM’s first in North America to achieve a zerowaste-to-landfill
status.
Among GM’s zero waste achievements:
• Achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status in January 2011
• Recycled 15,915 tons in 2011
• Has enjoyed more than $17 million in savings and
rebates since 2000
$17M
in savings and rebates since 2000
Reducing, Reusing
and Recycling at
Allison Transmission
Since 2008, WMSS has been partnering with Allison Transmission,
a manufacturer of commercial-duty automatic transmissions
and hybrid propulsion systems, to uncover every opportunity to
eliminate, reduce, reuse and recycle. Since we began our work,
we’ve reduced the general plant trash volume by 56 percent and
greatly increased recycling.
In 2011, we expanded the company’s plastics recycling program,
installing centralized recycling stations within each plant and pointof-use
recycling bins in high-volume areas, increasing the amount
of plastic recycled by more than 17 percent from the previous year.
We also began a styrofoam recycling program, reducing disposal
costs. Other achievements include a more than 55 percent increase
in aluminum recycling, an overall reduction in plant trash volume
of 7 percent from 2010 levels. and the recycling of 132 tons of
cardboard. Proceeds from the sale of the cardboard were donated
to local charities near the company’s headquarters.
55%
increase in aluminum recycling