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While each of the Detroit Three have taken some action to move toward having greener manufacturing plants, General Motors is ahead of the game with 52 percent landfill-free facilities worldwide.
Detroit MI automakers should all be proud as they step forward more efficiently, working toward less wasteful manufacturing plants. Of the Detroit Three, General Motors has excelled in this area. Since its dedicated goal in 2008 of having at least 50 percent of its plants worldwide completely landfill free, GM has not only hit that target, but actually exceeded it.
Two years ago, Detroit MI automaker General Motors committed its corporation to achieving 50 percent landfill-free facilities by 2010, although its first landfill-free facility located in Flint, Mich. achieved this status in 2005. The simplest way to achieve this goal was to begin recycling production waste or by reusing the waste in some form of the manufacturing process. According to GM’s news site, some actions they completed to move toward this goal include:
- Cardboard shipping materials from the GM Marion Stamping and Fort Wayne Assembly plants are recycled into sound-absorber material in the Buick Lacrosse’s headliner.
- Plastic caps and shipping aids from the Fort Wayne facility are converted into radiator shrouds for the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups built at the plant.
- Tires from vehicle performance testing at Milford Proving Ground are shredded and used in the manufacturing of air and water baffles for a variety of GM vehicles.
- Paint sludge from the Lansing Grand River plant is turned into plastic material and used for shipping containers durable enough to hold Chevrolet Volt and Cruze engines.
Just announced by GM, the corporation now has 76 landfill-free facilities, which put 52 percent of its 145 plants slightly over its 2008 goal. Detroit MI employees as well as others worldwide have pushed hard to achieve this goal as they take pride in being able to help the environment.
“I believe our employees were willing to engage because they could relate to what it means,” said John Bradburn, manager of GM’s waste-reduction efforts. “People don’t want to be wasteful; they want to help the environment. It’s become a sense of pride for those that work at those facilities, and it reflects in quality and throughput.”
As of now, Detroit MI automakers Chrysler and Ford have done some changes to their facilities as well. According to the Detroit Free Press, Chrysler has at least two of its 22 plants achieving landfill-free status, while Ford said it wanted to reduce the hazardous waste that is generated at its plants first before working on other waste reduction. To date, 11 of Ford's plants have reached zero or near-zero hazardous waste status.
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