GM’s Fort Wayne assembly plant goes landfill-free

January 9, 2012

General Motors’ assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Ind., where Chevy Silverado® and GMC Sierra® full-size pickup trucks are built, is the automaker’s first U.S. assembly plant to reuse, recycle, or convert to energy all of the waste created in its daily operations.

The plant recently received zero-landfill designation, joining 78 other GM landfill-free manufacturing facilities around the world. Nine GM operations that support the Fort Wayne plant with stampings, engines, transmissions, and components also are landfill-free.

A key to the plant’s landfill-free designation was a process and material change in its paint shop, enabling the recycling of processed wastewater treatment sludge that formerly was sent to landfills because of regulatory requirements.

The plant also participates in closed-loop recycling, repurposing its manufacturing byproducts into new car parts. Absorbent pads used to soak up oil and water from the plant floor are cleaned and reused up to three times and then recycled into automobile air deflectors. Cardboard packaging from the plant is recycled into acoustical padding for auto passenger compartments.