English - The Clorox Company

PLANET
“Dumpster Dives” Help to Reduce
Landfill Waste
Cost savings initiatives and manufacturing
excellence programs have helped Clorox build
a solid record in the areas of reducing and reusing
materials, but recent audits have found that we still
send too much waste to landfills. “dumpster dives,”
where employee volunteers literally dump and sort
through trash, have been an
effective initiative to raise
awareness of what can be
recycled and to encourage
changes about what gets
deposited in the trash.
Dives at our Tampa, Fla.,
and Amherst, Va., plants
have led to reductions of
waste sent to landfills of
more than 50 percent.
These achievements are
helping us make progress
toward our commitment
to reduce company-wide
solid waste by 20 percent
(per case of product sold)
from 2007 through 2013.
Solid Waste
13,893
12,590
12,783
31.7
28.4 28.9
2007 2008 2009
TONS
RATIO (tons of waste
per million cases)
The vast majority of the solid waste that Clorox
produces is nonhazardous in nature and we employ
manufacturing practices that minimize such waste.
The small amount of hazardous waste that we do
produce is properly handled by approved vendors
and properly tracked through its disposal process.
Biodiversity and Habitat Conservation
The preservation and protection of biodiversity and
natural ecosystems go hand in hand with resource
conservation. To this end, Clorox complies with
global, federal, state and local biodiversity legislation
and regulations and, whenever possible, goes beyond
legal requirements to ensure that our manufacturing
operations do not negatively impact biodiversity,
natural habitats, wetlands, forest lands, fisheries or
local plant and animal species.
Our overall operational impact on biodiversity is
insignificant, given the location and nature of our
operations as well as the products we manufacture.
The one exception is our plant in Aberdeen, Md.,
which manufactures bleach products. It is located on
150 acres of wetlands owned by Clorox that we are
committed to protecting. In 1993, our Aberdeen plant,
which resides on eight of these acres, was one of only
three buildings worldwide to receive the Distinguished
Environmental Planning Award from the Industrial
Development Resource Council. We were selected based
on our attention to energy conservation and preservation
of this 150-acre wetlands area.
Clorox’s “dumpster dives” help divert
waste from landfills.
46 The Clorox Company | 2010 CRR