GM FYI Blog

By Nicholas Daniels
Assistant Manager, Global Corporate News Relations

Did you know that the average person throws away approximately 4.5 pounds of waste per day?

The trash that we throw away each and every day is, for the most part, deposited into landfills that are operated under federal regulation.

Recently, GM’s Tonawanda (N.Y.) Engine Plant, the world’s largest engine manufacturing facility, achieved landfill-free status. That means all waste materials from the plant’s manufacturing operations are either recycled or converted to waste energy. More than 95 percent of the waste materials (23,300 tons annually) are recycled and nearly 5 percent (or 1,060 tons annually) are converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities.

This is the second GM plant in the U.S. to reach this achievement. GM’s Flint Engine South Plant in Flint, Mich., was the first to do so in March of 2005.

In one innovative recycling measure, tiny metal chips and flakes of aluminum previously thought to be too small to collect are now captured and sent to a recycler to be used again in other products. Engine parts are now transported in reusable plastic containers, instead of single-use cardboard boxes. A small amount of waste that can’t be recycled is sent to a waste-to-energy incinerator to generate electricity.

Overall, GM’s North American facilities have reduced non–recycled waste by 67 percent since 1997. Today, in North America, GM recycles nearly 88 percent of the waste it generates.

GM was also one of the first organizations and to this date is the only automaker to be inducted in the U.S. EPA WasteWise Hall of Fame. There is an economic benefit to being landfill-free as well. Recycling brings income into the plant; sending waste to a landfill is an expense.

While GM has been the global industry leader in sales for the past 75 years, it is also a leader in its efforts to restore and preserve the environment.