Manufacturers gone zero landfill

5 waves to reach zero waste to landfill ... and beyond

By Kate Bachman

January 31, 2012

Manufacturers are leading the effort to achieve zero landfill and are finding rewards and recognition, as well as savings, and are influencing other market segments to follow suit.

Subaru's zero-waste-to-landfill achievement in 2004 has changed the whole focus of the automotive industry, according to Tom Carpenter, sustainability services, Waste Management. "Everyone else wanted to catch up," he said. In fact, manufacturers are leading other segments in adopting zero landfill, he contended. "You're influencing health care, retail, and municipalities."

Carpenter and other presenters at the Green Manufacturer Network Zero-Waste-to-Landfill Challenge workshop on Dec. 7 shared insightful and practical information on how manufacturers can achieve zero-landfill status. Some manufacturers told their own stories of successful pursuit of zero landfill. Other presenters provided advice based on their consultation in service to manufacturers.

GM. Waste Management has provided consultation to GM in its landfill achievements, Carpenter said. Today 78 GM facilities produce zero landfill waste; on Nov. 29 GM announced its first assembly plant to go landfill-free in Fort Wayne, Ind. (see Figure 1)

Honda. Another vehicle manufacturer influenced by Subaru's zero-landfill achievement is Honda. Ten of its 14 North American plants are landfill-free, said Wendell Hughes, environmental, health, and safety manager for Honda of South Carolina Mfg. Inc. The Timmonsville plant went from sending 2,600 metric tons to a landfill to becoming landfill-free by July 2010.

Hughes proposed that the next-generation plant will be based on the green factory concept (see Figure 2). He said, "We are aware that the need for environment protection is increasing. That means resource efficiencies and reducing wastes and toxic substances. We want to be a factory that our neighbors are proud of."

Burt's Bees. Glen Jones, director of manufacturing for the skin-care products manufacturer, stated at the event that taking care of the environment is integral to the company's brand and mission, "Making people's lives better every day—naturally." "Visitors have asked how we contain our chemicals. There are no 'chemicals.' Everything is natural," he explained during a plant tour as part of the event.

That mission drives all of the company's sustainability initiatives, including the achievement of zero landfill in April 2010. The company reduced its landfill waste from 344 tons per year to none. Having zero-landfill status is in the company's DNA, Jones said. "We do well by doing good."

The manufacturer has carefully planned outlets for every material it uses, from product to packaging to shipping materials.

FCCC. Another manufacturer sharing its zero-landfill story was Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp., which was featured in the September/October 2010 issue ("Chassis builder achieves zero waste to landfill using reusable packaging," p. 20). FCCC achieved zero landfill in September 2009.

First Steps, Next Steps, Last Steps to Zero Landfill

1. Dumpster® Dive. Most manufacturers have at least a loosely based process for recycling, said Bill Harris, environmental/facilities engineering supervisor, FCCC. The first step to zero landfill is assessing where you are in your recycling process. That means diving, he said. "Dumpster diving." (See Figure 3.)

FCCC's Ryan Pennington, environmental/facilities tech & TPM facilitator, added, "You have to get dirty. You've got to get into the trash can. You put your gloves on and get in it."

Honda's Hughes concurred. "We dumped one compactor in the parking lot and looked at everything. It was kind of scary when you look at all the byproducts you have to find homes for."

Burt's Bees' Dumpster-dive day is a popular YouTube video. It shows how the company dumped the trash bins onto a large tarp for all the employees to examine. "They have to walk through it," Jones said regarding getting employees involved.

The most illuminating aspect of FCCC's Dumpster dive was realizing that achieving zero landfill was possible, Harris said. "About 90 percent of what we saw in the dump was stuff we can recycle. We realized this can be done."

2. Audit, Analyze, Plan. Pennington and Harris recognized a lot of opportunities for "low-hanging fruit." They saw that a lot of items that were supposed to be recycled were being discarded.

"We cleaned that up, and that took care of half of it," Harris said.

Pennington advised manufacturers to look closely at their collection process and to sort at the point of use. "That way, you're handling it only one time."

Pennington and Harris helped employees quickly identify which recyclable material should be deposited where by color-coding the collection containers and posting a simple color chart. "Color-coding reduced our landfill waste by 40 percent," Pennington reported.

Hughes said his team regularly conducts an audit of the recycling containers to see if they have been contaminated with other materials, such as food waste with paper, he said. A report with a score goes to upper management.

He added that the team also tracks the ratio of waste recycled to that sent to incineration for waste-to-energy processes. Currently 88 percent is recycled and 12 percent goes to waste-to-energy outlets, he said.

Honda recycles a multitude of materials, including bulk polystyrene, compact plastic drums, and copper weld tips (see Figure 4). The manufacturer uses a horizontal baler for steel scrap. Many components are shipped to and from suppliers and customers on reusable crates (see Figure 5).

"We do a lot of plastic recycling," Hughes said. After it is sorted by plastic type, which is stamped on the container bottoms, the plastic is shredded on-site. Hughes said that part of his team's assessment was looking at the overall impact of recycling to make sure it was not a financial burden.

Subaru enlisted the services of Heritage Interactive Services to help with its monumental task of achieving zero landfill. Matt Green, senior program manager for Heritage, said he places an emphasis on how to generate cost savings by eliminating waste. He said some of the best sources for ideas on how to do that and collect data were from production employees. "We asked them for ideas. They gave us 5,000 suggestions in the first month."

Green emphasized the importance of semantics when discussing waste management with employees. "Trash is one of the new seven dirty words," he said. "Stop calling it trash or garbage. Come up with something else. If you don't call it trash, maybe they'll think of it differently."

"If something is not a product, it's byproduct," Burt's Bees' Jones said.

3. Sort, Label, Flake, Chop, Melt to Maximize Value. Although single-stream recycling is common, sorting increases the value of the waste, Waste Management's Carpenter said. "You don't have to pay to separate it twice."

In addition, manufacturers can increase the value of some materials by processing them on-site. For example, if plastic is flaked, its per-pound value increases.

"Managing plastics Nos. 1 and 2 is fairly easy. But Nos. 3 through 6 are very difficult," Carpenter said. "So we are developing new technology that turns those plastics back into crude." In this way, new products, such as a new fuel source or plastic-fiber carpet, can be re-created out of those plastics, he said.

4. Find Outlets for Byproducts. Kimball Markham, a conference presenter and president of Asheboro Recycling, said that manufacturers may be surprised to find how valuable some recyclables are. One of the highest return rates right now is on copper, he said. He advised manufacturers and their agents to check rates frequently, though, because they can change daily.

Green said that when his team first analyzed the Subaru waste stream, they examined what was left after separating out what he called "the usual suspects"—cardboard, steel, paper, and other commodity materials it is easy to find an outlet for. "Polystyrene was the largest impact item, the one that was hardest to get rid of, until recently. We've since found a polystyrene recycler."

Green said his company works upstream with recyclers and believes that the healthiest relationship is a mutually beneficial one. "It should not be an adversarial relationship."

Heritage even sources some of its supplies from the recycling centers it uses. "Then we are part of the solution, closing the loop," Green added.

The Last 7 Percent. For FCCC, finding outlets for plastics was tough because there are so many types of plastic and the chassismaker generates only limited quantities.

Some strategies suggested for finding outlets for the last 7 percent include establishing partnerships with other local businesses to create synergies and to maximize loads.

Green said they took creative approaches to find homes for Subaru's last 7 percent and left no waste unattended. "We even recycle the floor sweepings from the body shop, right down to the pop rivets."

Other approaches he used included donating excess paint that is nearing its expiration date to Habitat for Humanity. Rubber bands are donated to schools or local newspapers.

Organic Waste. Finding outlets for food waste is a common problem, many manufacturers agreed. In addition, breakroom waste paper goods that have been contaminated with food leftovers no longer can be recycled with other paper goods.

Some manufacturers such as Subaru send theirs to a composter. "Composting was one of the last things that we did," Green said. "Ironically, Mother Nature has been composting since the dawn of time."

Presenter Amy Brooks, owner of Brooks Contractor, accepts and hauls organic waste from manufacturers and other companies in the North Carolina area. The commercial composter recycles more than 65,000 tons of organic materials per year from 140 locations in Chatham, Cumberland, Durham, Guilford, Orange, and Wake counties (see Figure 6).

The company collects organics in either 8-yard Dumpsters or 64-gallon wheeled containers. Customers fill the containers as needed, and Brooks' trucks collect the waste, once per week minimally. All pre- and postconsumer food waste is accepted.

"This material was landfilled in the past and is now turned into a usable product that beautifies the plant life in our communities," Brooks said.

The converted soil mixes contain no harmful chemicals or biosolids, resulting in a purely organic material that is safe to use in any type of environment. All finished products are fully matured and odorless, she said.

For FCCC, the best option for its low and varied supply of high-BTu plastics, as well as its mixed cafeteria/paper waste, was to send it to a waste-to-energy processor (see Figure 7). Even the ash that the process produces is used to make concrete.

As to how to cost-justify finding outlets for materials that do not turn a profit, or that actually cost money to recycle, FCCC's Harris had this reply: "We maximize some to offset the cost of others. It's not a race. A bottom line is a bottom line."

5. Source Reduction. Once manufacturers have achieved zero landfill, they tend to go back and start examining how to eliminate waste to begin with, Waste Management's Carpenter said. "Reducing nonproduct output—that's where you generate the most savings.

"What are ways to eliminate waste throughout the process and recuperate the highest value on recyclables?" Carpenter said.

Carpenter gave an example of another creative approach using in-plant dunnage in the product itself.

GM's production process includes the use of cardboard between metal blanks for scratch and abrasion protection. Originally, the cardboard was separated for recycling, but more recent design engineering resulted in processing that cardboard in-plant into flaked material that is now used as sound-deafening material in the headliner.

For Heritage's Green, zero waste to landfill is so 8 years ago.

"I used to say that we're the only one [waste processor] with a zero-landfill automotive plant. Now others have caught the wave.

"Once we've reached zero, where do we go? I can only go back to Subaru and say 'zero landfill' so many times."

Green advised redesigning production processes and even products to streamline waste management. "Sometimes you're trying to get a square peg to fit into a round hole, and it just doesn't fit. We analyze it. What is the sharpest corner of that square peg that you're trying to get in there?"

As an example, Heritage implemented a solvent-recovery system to handle Subaru's solvent-based paint byproducts. The system was very expensive. "We had the only legal distillery," he said.

Heritage and Subaru began looking at the total cost of the solvent, as well as the cost of solvent recovery. "It was a big deal," Green said.

Then two years ago, Subaru changed its paint process from solvent-based to water-based, which eliminated the solvents and the need for solvent recovery altogether.

Upstream Thinking. "If you reduce what you bring into building, you don't have to manage it or report it," Green said.

For example, before the huge price surge in steel in 2004, Subaru purchased one standard size of steel coil. The resulting skeleton represented a lot of steel waste. The company worked with the engineering department to right-size the coil sizes that it orders. Now the company purchases 122 different sizes of steel coil. This has reduced the amount of steel per unit from 459 lbs. to 250 lbs.

"In addition, all of this saves electricity—saves money," Green said.

Green advised manufacturers to examine the type of lubricant and lubrication system they use as well. "Look at the total cost footprint. How much does it cost not only to buy, but also to process and dispose of?"

He added that Subaru started considering supplier packaging as a part of its business plan. "If one supplier's environmental performance is better, they get preferential treatment."

Jones said Burt's Bees takes it even further. "If a vendor doesn't follow our sustainability requirements, we eliminate them immediately."

Green said that some packaging materials and dunnage are returned to the supplier. We started sending plastics inserts back to the source in Japan. "If you can send it to us, can you take it back?"

Heritage is working with Subaru farther upstream to plan for material changes. "Looking ahead, what is going on in car design?"

He likes to know early on about components that may be made with hard-to-recycle plastics, bioplastics that won't degrade as easily—soy-based foam for car seats, for example—so he can have input or have more time to find outlets.

"When we're last to know, that makes it harder."

Future efforts will focus on multiple-use recycling, Green said. "If we donate rubber bands and they're used once, that's better than none, but two uses are better than one."

Another future approach to waste management may be using plants to filter chemicals, called phytoremediation, he said.

"The future is bright," Waste Management's Carpenter said.

Hughes added, "Once you become landfill-free, the challenge is still there; you have to keep doing it.

Never give up. It's good to be landfill-free."

Brooks Contractors

Covanta

FCCC

GM

Honda of South Carolina Mfg. Inc.

Heritage Interactive Services

Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc.

Waste Management