General Motors rev up recycling

Once the single largest employer in North America and rocked by over a decade of diminishing sales and accusations of irresponsible spending which culminated in a large government sanctioned bailout, General Motors have experienced the very best of times and worst of times over the last 50 years. In an auto industry that has undergone wholesale changes in the last 25 years General Motors often appeared to be the oldest man at the party, making ugly vehicles that weren’t relevant to consumers nor providing good value for money. The gradual greening of the auto industry may just ironically be the remaking of the Michigan based auto giant. Fuel consumption, reliability and resale value are newer consumer needs that all manufacturers must appeal to in addition to the requisite calls for luxury, power and safety.

Having proudly announced the fact that their government bailouts have been repaid (with interest!) the greening of GM complete with a sustainability program now moves into the spotlight. It’s hard to visualize the sheer size of General Motors, whether it be in terms of raw materials, machinery, purchasing power or vehicles built. In raw numbers how about 240,000 + global employees and more than 8.3 million cars and trucks sold in 2008. When a company of this stature makes green commitments I sit up and pay attention, such is the different they can make. In an ideal world GM would make only hybrid or alternate fuel vehicles, but until that day arrives let’s look at a major accomplishment that is already being undertaken.

General Motors have announced that Sixty-two manufacturing plants have achieved “zero landfill” status – achieved by recycling or reusing all normal plant wastes. This is hugely significant as it represents almost of all their global manufacturing facilities no longer send any production waste to landfills. GM announced in 2008 to convert half of such sites to landfill free status by the end of this year, at this point GM is 87% toward that worthy target. As you’d expect from the giant company the impact is truly global – as the landfill free locations are spread as follows: 27 facilities in North America, 21 facilities in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and 14 facilities in Europe. Mike Robinson, GM vice president of Environment, Energy and Safety added:

“We’ve been working for quite some time at eliminating waste and developing support systems to recycle or reuse wastes we can’t yet eliminate. These plants have taken this process to its highest level. They are leading General Motors and the worldwide manufacturing industry. Reducing the impact of our manufacturing facilities is an important component of our efforts to remove the automobile from the environmental equationWe are actively pursuing ways to improve fuel economy, reduce oil consumption and reduce the CO2 emissions of our vehicles. Our work, however, goes beyond our vehicles to improving the environmental performance of our operations, too.”

In actuality an impressive 97% percent of waste from these plants is recycled or reused and less than 3% is then converted to energy replacing fossil fuels. These changes really mount up – Over 2 million tons of waste materials will be therefore be recycled or reused around the world at GM this year. In addition some 45,000 tons will be converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities. These achievements aren’t limited to the targeted site only however, throughout the company about 90% of the waste generated by GM is recycled. This all equates to the prevention of over 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emission from entering the atmosphere this year, not too mention the awful impacts of more landfill use. To the consumer – recycled materials reduces energy consumption and manufacturing costs when compared to using raw materials.

The recycling totals are impressive alone – just this year GM expect to recycle 650,000 tons of scrap metal, 16,600 tons of wood, 21,600 tons of cardboard, and 3,600 tons of plastic. It will be worth keeping your eyes on GM as they rebrand an old company no longer looking back to the glory days of the 1950’s. Corporate Social Responsibility marches forward – now how about those alt-fuel vehicles please Detroit? Read much more about GM here at their official page.