GM FYI Blog

By Ray Tessier
Group Director, BWFG Environmental Services

Like most manufacturing companies, GM has always generated waste during its history. This was considered a cost of doing business. In the mid-1990s, however, GM started to view this waste differently. GM began to view these materials as wasted resources — resources that had value. So, GM developed a program where a contractor would come into a plant to manage these wasted resources to the highest value.

The mantra of the “Resource Management” program called for:

• Elimination of Waste

• Prevention of Waste
• Recycle / Reuse of Waste
• Energy Recovery from Waste
• Disposal of Waste

As a company, GM established some aggressive goals regarding the reduction of waste — not only in North America, but around the world. During the five-year period from 2000 to 2005, GM’s global facilities reduced the amount of waste generated by more than 1 million metric tons, or 15 percent per vehicle produced.

GM also wanted to take advantage of the waste materials that it produced. The majority of that waste is scrap steel. All of the scrap steel (and other metal) is recycled — either within GM’s own foundries or to brokers from other companies to use in their own products.

For the oil previously wasted, GM now has an oil reuse program, where waste oil is sent for cleaning and re-refining, and then brought back into plants for reuse at a savings of approximately 25 percent versus virgin oil. Worldwide, GM recycles more than 88 percent of all waste generated, producing value for the company.

As the amount of waste has been reduced, GM has also been able to examine the potential for completely eliminating landfill waste at some of its facilities. This has become a reality at Flint Engine South (Michigan), and Tonawanda Engine (New York). This was not an easy goal, as the people at the plant and the resource managers needed to find new and innovative ways of handling the small waste streams remaining. Now, these streams are converted into energy through combustion.

GM is proud of achieving landfill-free status at these two facilities, but we feel there is much more to be accomplished. Working with resource management contractors, GM is keying in on wastes that have not been recycled in the past. Research is being done on potential reuses of paint sludge. This is an ongoing effort each and every day at GM — an effort taking everyone down the “Road to Zero” emissions.