- Posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Recycling 7,300 Tons of Waste
By Ray Tessier, Group Director
GM Worldwide Facilities Group , Global Environmental Services
What does a manufacturing plant do with more than 7,300 tons of waste?
GM’s Baltimore Transmission Plant recycles, reuses and converts to energy that amount of waste each year – all the waste it produces from its normal business operations. Recently, Baltimore Transmission was given the designation of “landfill-free,” a title we’re proud of.
Considering the size of the plant – 400 employees make 189,000 transmissions a year – it’s a significant accomplishment achieved by only a few manufacturing plants in the U.S. And when you figure that the average American generates 4.5 pounds of waste each day, over half of which ends up in a landfill, this is a significant amount.
Part of the challenge in reaching landfill-free status is finding uses for recyclable materials. Today, even the tiniest scrap of trash is put to beneficial reuse. Take a look at some of the ways we’re using these materials:
- Wood pallets that are used to deliver some of the plant’s supplies have an interesting after-life. Two Baltimore-area fire departments use the pallets to teach their cadets how to put out fires. Some of the pallets are even shredded for use as mulch.
- GM foundries that produce engine and transmission components recycle aluminum.
- Used oil is reconditioned for use as a manufacturing fuel additive.
But this is only part of the story. Another part of Baltimore Transmission’s achievement is invisible – it’s waste that simply isn’t there anymore.
Like all GM manufacturing facilities across the world, Baltimore Transmission focuses first on eliminating waste, and then on recycling waste that cannot be avoided. Our most recent data for our global facilities over a five-year period shows we reduced our generation of waste by more than 23 percent, while increasing our recycling rate by more than 4 percent.
We understand that anything that leaves our plants that isn’t a part of a car or truck is waste. Waste is not only bad for the environment; it’s bad for our business. As landfill-deposited waste decomposes, it emits greenhouse gases, contributing to global climate change. It also adds unnecessary costs to our business.
Baltimore Transmission is the eighth GM facility in the world to reach landfill-free status, and it won’t be the last. Our facilities across the globe are continuing to squeeze out waste, and are seeking out and helping to develop the needed recycling infrastructure. Today, GM facilities around the world recycle on average about 86 percent of the waste they generate. It won’t be long before more GM plants reach a level where they send less waste to landfills than the typical American consumer does.”
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2 Comments
Patrick
Great job, GM. It’s not easy to take reduce, reuse, recycle to its logical conclusion but Baltimore Transmission has, and you should be proud. This should be publicized since Toyota gets all the “green” credit in this country, and GM deserves that credit for this achievement.
noel park
Well done. Thank you.
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