plastics, packaging and waste · plastics, packaging and waste the three r's - reduce, reuse...

Venue, Date

Plastics, packaging and waste

Knowledge Share webinar with

General Motors on

Landfill-free: making waste productive

March 27, 2012


• Most companies have to deal with plastics, packaging and waste at various stages of their value chains.

• Can waste be turned into profit, for the benefit of the environment and the company?

• General Motors will share its process to achieve landfill-free sites by explaining how creative recycling and reuse projects are helping bring value to the company.

March 27, 2012


The three R's - reduce, reuse and recycle - all help to cut down on the amount of waste thrown away. They conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy.

• REDUCE, to limit the amount of waste created in the first place.

• REUSE, using something again that you would normally throw away.

• RECYCLE, where product goes through a mechanical process to change its form.

• RECOVER, to convert waste into resources (such as electricity, heat, compost and fuel).

March 27, 2012

GRI Guidelines

Environmental dimension of sustainability:

• an organization’s impacts on living and non-living natural systems, including ecosystems, land, air, and water.

Environmental Indicators cover performance related to:

• inputs (e.g., material, energy, water);

• outputs (e.g., emissions, effluents, waste);

• biodiversity;

• environmental compliance;

• environmental expenditure; and

• the impacts of products and services.

March 27, 2012

Reporters

Reports:

GRI’s Sustainability Disclosure Database includes a “BENCHMARK” tool where information on which reporters have addressed which environmental and social indicators can be found. This database includes all GRI checked reports since 1 January 2011.

Practical Projects:

An example from General Motors on making waste productive.

March 27, 2012

The Road to Zero John Bradburn,

GM manager of waste-reduction efforts

•Goal: Reduce impact our facilities and vehicles have

on environment •Waste reduction is one way; strive to lead

•Our worldwide facilities combined recycle more than 90% of the waste they generate

•Data is the backbone

•Shows materials generated, reused and recycled; reveals improvement

•Enables lessons-learned to be shared where recycling infrastructure isn’t developed

•Refine data into specific plant goals and metrics

•Tie goals into plant managers’ performance evaluations to ensure accountability

Env ironment & Energy Sustainability

•Use onsite supplier to manage all plant waste. •Container preparation & labeling

•Investigate recycling opportunities •Source separation & reduction studies

•Waste disposal scheduling •Environmental studies •Environmental reporting/training

•Cost reduction program


•Approach waste from sustainable financial

perspective; generates leadership interest •Since 2007, GM has generated $2.5B in revenue through

recycling activities


•Achieving waste goals becomes sense of pride for

employees •Reflects in quality and throughput

•Become creative and lean by analyzing waste streams and optimizing for efficiency •View recycling from a systems perspective to:

• protect the environment •eliminate cost

•increase efficiency •create revenue

• Through bankruptcy, waste-

reduction more important than ever


Goal: Manage byproducts within one system, achieve

zero-landfill, recover all resources to their highest value

Strategy: Leverage purchasing, leadership support (e.g., NA VP of Manufacturing)

Challenge: Groups overlapped; material values not maximized

Solution: Onsite resource managers with compliance,

waste minimization focus

Results: In 2007, all U.S. and Canada assembly operations implemented cross-functional, multi-facility

program. Achieved $15M in value.


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5,000,000

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$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$15,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000

$30,000,000

$35,000,000

$40,000,000

$45,000,000

$50,000,000

20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010

Tons

Cost of Program Total Waste

*Cost of Program = Total program spend less revenue back to GM from reconciliation & by-products programs

•Ensure employees have stake in initiative; comes

down to people and process •Create rewards for new waste-reduction ideas

•Encourage employees to develop job functions with environment in mind

•Design engineers select parts with least waste,

while thinking about how efficiently plant operator can assemble it on vehicle

•For example: A die-cut part coming to plant with only the part and not scrap saves time, enables more recycling at supplier level


•Combine data with employee

engagement to create best practices; drive them throughout the organization

•Spread throughout supply chain for more benefits

•Collaborate with suppliers to turn ideas

into reality •Rethink product design to avoid scrap

•Suppliers realize the business case; opportunity to highlight their own ingenuity


http://www.supplierspartnership.org/index.html

•Integrate lifecycle environmental considerations

into: •Product development

•Manufacturing process •Material selection

•Change a product, process or design to improve

environmental impacts to environment and health •Complete trial

•Make applicable for all manufacturing inputs, internal processes & outputs

•Set goals based on product strategies


• Identify sustainable technologies

• Make business case • Engage

stakeholders

• Deploy • Measure

• Communicate

Sustainability Matrix

Sustainability Sub-factor Measureable Criteria

Social People Persons w Disabilities or Disadvantaged

Human Health Exposure Improvement

Hearing Conservation

Other Safety

Youth Programs

Employee Education and Communication

Education and Academia Stewardhip

Ecology Wildlife Protection/Enhancement

Habitat Flora Enhancement

Water, air, soil quality improvements

Environment Greening of

Facilities Regulatory Compliance Improvement

Carbon Footprint

External Mentorship/Stewardship

Landfill Free

Suppler greening

Process usage/conservation improvement

Resource

Efficiency Conservation

Waste elimination/minimization

Reuse

Recycle

Compost

Energy from By-product

Alternative energy improvement

Economic Product Sell Vehicles

Competitive Advantage

Product Cost Reduction

Recycled & Biobased content savings

Other product quality improvement

Fuel economy

Manufacturing Output (By-product) revenue

Input (Chemical raw material) savings

Process cost savings

Energy cost savings/revenue

•All byproducts from ongoing, day-to-day operations

•Includes episodic/periodic byproducts like pit

cleanouts

•Byproducts managed by any method except

landfill •At manufacturing sites, on average more than

96% of waste is recycled/reused and less than 4%

is converted to energy at waste-to-energy

facilities, replacing fossil fuels


• Surpassed goal to make half of our manufacturing sites

landfill-free by 2010 • Executives & plants embraced strategic business concept

• Focus on decreasing waste generated, recycling unavoidable

waste


•Use resources in most efficient way. •Goal: Understand how a sustainability

program affects business decisions and

performance

•Solution: Drill deeper into how resource

usage decisions are made


•Find paths to closed-loop recycling

•Recycle waste into new vehicle parts, plant supplies

•Acoustic pads

•Headliners •under carpet

•door liners •Collaborate with purchasing &

product engineering


•Converted Asian/U.S

cardboard & recycled textile fibers into non-woven

substrate for acoustics •Eliminates plant waste, turns

it into vehicle parts

•Substrate contains 25-30% cardboard

•Meets technical, commercial, & economic targets


•Convert scrap battery covers into wood duck nesting

boxes •Place on GM, private and public

grounds to improve habitats •Provides safe place to lay eggs. •Example of finding alternative

use for unneeded product


•Door window cutouts

generated sheet-metal scrap when doors were stamped

•Created reuse plan that saves energy, emissions & costs •Sell it to stampers/fabricators,

who then sell it to end user for less than cost of new material


• One-way containers shipped to the U.S. reused to

build trailers • Chevrolet Cruze center console

reused as a sled • Scrap battery cover converted into planter


• Used oil management expertise to lessen spill impact

• Previous options: Landfill or burning for energy

• Collected booms until no longer a need—227 miles

•Saved 29,000 gallons of water &

Oil from nation’s landfills •Eliminated 212,500 lbs of waste

•Eliminated 149 tons of CO2-equiv. emissions from entering air



Heritage

Environmental Collects Booms

Mobile Fluid

Recovery Extracts Oil and

Wastewater

GDC Inc. Produces Volt

Components

GM Installs Parts in

Chevrolet Volt

Gulf Oil Booms Find New Life in

•25% boom material

•25% recycled tires from our vehicle test facility •25% packaging plastic from our Fort Wayne plant

•25% mixture of post-consumer recycled plastics and other polymers


•Share knowledge to be a leader; work with policy,

suppliers and associations •Recommended new boom design with greater

recyclability to U.S. EPA • Polypropylene and other oil-phyllic materials

preferred to enable end-of-life options

• Suppliers with recycling plans get preference • Polypropylene core, rope and sheath preferred

•Avoid incompatible materials • Heat ends or use plastic crimps vs. steel rings


Environment & Energy Sustainability

Venue, Date

Questions?

March 27, 2012

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plastics, packaging and waste · plastics, packaging and waste the three r's - reduce, reuse...

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