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Success Stories - Automotive
Success Stories
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Guardian Automotive– Ligonier Plant, IN
Guardian Automotive–Ligonier Plant, an automotive glass plant, is shattering the idea that industry and the environment are at odds by integrating a comprehensive waste reduction program in its facility. Winning eight WasteWise awards in just seven years, the Ligonier Plant has demonstrated waste reduction success as both a Partner and an Endorser.
The Ligonier Plant is continuously searching for ways to reuse and recycle new materials. In 2005, the Ligonier Plant recycled more than 13,000 tons of waste and saved more than $360,000. This included recycling all unused glass cullet, which is used to make glass beads for bead blasting, fiberglass, or reflective paint for highways. The Ligonier Plant’s activities also have had a positive effect on operating costs, saving the small company more than $1.3 million since becoming a Partner in 1996.
Even materials traditionally overlooked for recycling have not escaped the Ligonier Plant’s meticulous waste reduction efforts. Thanks to its employee education efforts and detailed tracking, the Ligonier Plant has recycled approximately 80 tons of razor blades as scrap steel since its razor blade recycling program began in 1998. The Ligonier Plant sold more than 140 tons of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) used in the laminating department and recycled more than 70 tons of scrap polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
Understanding that waste reduction can equal big savings, the Ligonier Plant became a WasteWise Endorser in 2003, and spread the WasteWise message to other Guardian plants. Including the Ligonier Plant, 10 out of 37 Guardian facilities in the United States now proudly call themselves WasteWise Partners.
Guardian Automotive–Ligonier Plant is proactively reducing waste in its facilities and has been honored by WasteWise for its outstanding efforts for each of the last six years. In 2004, the Ligonier Plant continued its program to recycle or reuse all glass not used in an end product. As a result, 714 tons of glass cullet were reused in plate glass, and another 11,326 tons were recycled. Another program that’s rather unique to the Ligonier Plant is the razor blade collection—the company recycled more than 21,000 pounds of them in 2004.
In producing automotive glass, Indiana-based Guardian Automotive takes great measures to debunk the myth that “industry” equals “waste.” Ligonier Plant reduced the overall amount of trash it generated by 464,000 pounds in 2003 as compared to 2001, saving more than $13,800 in disposal costs. With a strong commitment to waste prevention, Guardian launders and reuses cloth gloves and towels and found a company that will reuse its Gaylord boxes instead of recycling them. This action diverted 22,770 pounds of corrugated cardboard from the landfill and saved Guardian $1,380. The company also recycled 25 million pounds of material in 2003—an impressive number for a company with only 519 employees. Guardian attributes much of its success to its employees— since they are on the waste reduction “front line”—and solicits their suggestions about how to improve plant waste reduction initiatives. The Ligonier Plant is a prominent member of the community, and its employees often visit schools to discuss the importance of waste reduction. The company also enjoys the recognition it receives from local media.
Guardian Automotive pays close attention to the connection between waste and climate change. In 2003, the Ligonier Plant’s emission reductions were equivalent to removing more than 1,000 cars from the road for one year!
Guardian Industries in Ligonier, IN
Guardian Industries in Ligonier, a manufacturer of vehicle glass and exterior trim systems for the automotive industry, has a diverse waste reduction program that finds ways to divert materials traditionally disposed of in the manufacturing process. In 2000, Guardian saved $26,100 and 2,868 pounds of cloth by laundering gloves instead of disposing of them and by implementing a glove return program. The facility also laundered wiping cloths after substituting them for paper towels, eliminating 1,600 pounds of paper towel waste and 9,350 pounds of cloth waste from the waste stream. Guardian converts what would normally be waste material into a raw material by recycling all glass that is not used as an end product. The glass is returned to the raw glass plants for reuse or purchased by cullet vendors to be made into glass beads for bead blasting, fiberglass, or reflective paint for highways. In addition, Guardian manufactures millions of wind-shields each year and uses a new razor blade for each piece of glass. By recycling 7.5 tons of these discarded razor blades along with 92 tons of scrap steel, the plant diverted a total of 99.5 tons of steel from the waste stream in 2000 and saved $2,192. Guardian halted the incineration of scrap wood by having the wood chipped and reused as animal bedding or landscaping material, giving a second life to more than 146 tons of wood. In 2000, it recycled 43 tons of corrugated cardboard and 34 tons of mixed paper, saving $4,330. In addition to spending $3,096 on recycled-content materials in 2000, Guardian purchased 7,740 pounds of recycled-content 55-gallon drums, saving $6,787.
Guardian Industries’ Ligonier Plant eliminated more than 2 tons of textiles from the waste stream by laundering intact used gloves for reuse and instituting a glove return program. These activities resulted in a cost saving of $39,600. The company also switched from paper towels to reusable wiping clothes, saving 1.5 tons of paper towels and $7,200 in purchasing costs. Guardian also prevented the incineration of 100 tons of scrap wood by reusing it as animal bedding.
As a WasteWise award winner for 4 years running, Guardian Industries’ Ligonier shows its continued commitment to reducing waste through the newly established Recycling Center. The center has enabled the company to increase its processing of recyclables in 2001, including 74 tons of corrugated cardboard that saved the company more than $5,600. Guardian also collected and recycled 250 tons of steel, along with large amounts of paper, plastic, and non-ferrous metals. In 2001, Guardian Industries stopped 515 tons of material from being disposed of and saved more than $111,000.
Guardian continued a glove reuse program that launders and reuses nearly 3 tons of gloves, preventing an additional 2 tons of new gloves from ending up in the trash and saving Guardian Industries almost $48,000! The company switched from disposable paper towels to a washable material, avoiding more than 1 ton of landfilled wiping cloths. In addition, Guardian Industries sends its leftover wood scraps to a recycler that chips it to be used as animal bedding and landscape material, preventing nearly 132 tons of wood from incineration. As for internal WasteWise promotion, and to thank its employees for their recycling efforts, Guardian purchased shirts bearing the WasteWise logo for each employee!
General Motors Corporation – Detroit, MI
General Motors Corporation (GM), the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer, finds that through its voluntary partnerships, it can make a world of difference. GM employs 325,000 people globally in its core automotive business and subsidiaries and holds about 15 percent of the global vehicle market. Since joining WasteWise as a Charter Partner in 1994, GM has established itself as a true innovator, identifying countless ways to reduce its ecological footprint. WasteWise named GM Partner of the Year twice in the past three years, as well as Climate Change Partner of the Year in 2003.
Between 1998 and 2002, GM facilities in the United States decreased the generation of WasteWise-targeted wastes by 37 percent, and they have not stopped there. Realizing that waste reduction opportunities are not only found at the tail end of the waste stream, GM developed Resource Management (RM)—a strategic alternative to disposal contracting that aligns a waste hauler’s financial incentives with a facility’s waste reduction goals. The RM program is now in place at 94 percent of GM’s North American facilities. Only four years after rolling out RM, participating facilities reported a 42 percent reduction in waste that could be credited to the success of the initiative.
RM is only one example of GM’s commitment to innovative waste management. In addition, the automobile manufacturer strives to increase the recycled content of materials in vehicle components such as head-liners, door trim, instrument panels, bumpers, seats, and molding. For example, GM North America uses 8,500 tons of nylon fibers from recycled carpet; 5,400 tons of polypropylene from recycled soda bottle caps; and 2,900 tons of rubber from recycled tires in its vehicles annually. Also, as a founding member of the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment with EPA, GM leads an effort to collaborate with its suppliers to improve environmental management throughout the supply chain. Looking to the future, GM aims to reduce the total amount of waste generated at all of its facilities worldwide by an additional 15 percent and increase the recycling rate by 15 percent from 2000 through the end of 2005. By putting this goal into action through its numerous ongoing environmental initiatives, GM looks to be a model WasteWise Partner for years to come.
GM incorporates waste reduction into every aspect of automobile production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the company uses higher strength steel grades to reduce automobile mass and improve fuel economy. In 2002, GM U.S. employees prevented more than 3,000 tons of waste and recycled more than 2 million tons of materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 4.3 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.
GM employs more than 350,000 people in more than 70 North American facilities. Recognizing that the waste stream often contains valuable resources, the company is implementing Resource Management, a holistic approach to waste management contracting that seeks to reduce waste disposal through a process of prevention, reuse, and recycling. GM plans to fully implement RM in all its North American facilities by the end of 2001. To name just a few examples, GM reused building materials and eliminated some uses of corrugated pack-aging and office paper. Through product engineering improvements, GM reduced the amount of steel scrap and lifetime brake part waste associated with its line of full-size sport utility vehicles. The company saved more than $100 million by recycling more than 1.5 million tons of material, including corrugated boxes, mixed plastics, aluminum, steel, iron, and wood. GM also understands the importance of closing the loop by purchasing items with recycled content. In 2000, GM incorporated more than 3,500 tons of recycled-content plastic, textile, and rubber components into its automobiles.
In 2001, GM completed the development of one of its newest 4x4 vehicles—the Hummer H2—one of the most environmentally friendly all-terrain vehicles currently cruising into the market. The environmental craze about GM’s work on this vehicle isn’t how it looks or how much power is under the hood—it’s about the fact that the Hummer H2 is among one of the most recyclable vehicles ever manufactured! GM marked nearly 5,000 tons of the vehicles’ molded plastic for recycling, which will ease the recovery process when the vehicle has reached the end of its life. Among other developments, GM produced radiator side air baffles that consist of 70 percent postconsumer recycled materials, using 12.5 tons of rubber from used tires!
GM’s 2002 midsize sport utility vehicles—the Trailblazer, Envoy, and Bravada—got high marks in waste prevention and recycling as well. Engineers decreased the amount of waste produced during manufacturing, by an estimated 2,000 tons annually. Plus, GM used nearly 4,000 recycled tires to produce the radiator side air baffles, which not only helps with waste reduction, but also makes GM’s midsize SUVs more fuel efficient.
GM is also an industry leader in vehicle disassembly for recycling. In 2001, the company was the first auto manufacturer to make its vehicle disassembly information readily available via the Internet. GM continues to post more end-of-life vehicle manuals as they are produced to provide dismantlers with information on recyclable vehicle parts.
International Truck and Engine Corporation
International Truck and Engine Corporation made WasteWise reporting a priority in 1994 and has diligently maintained this practice for 10 years. In 2000, International Truck initiated its Next Generation Vehicle (NGV) program, which allowed suppliers to ship using returnable containers and fewer individually packaged parts. This program cut packaging waste in half. The first North American truck and diesel engine manufacturer to achieve ISO 14001 registration, International recycled more than 1,600 tons of corrugated boxes, 3,400 tons of wooden pallets, and 22,000 tons of ferrous metals in 2003. International Truck and Engine also reaches out to the community to further reduce waste. The company’s Fort Wayne, Indiana, facility hosts an annual Tire Amnesty Day to give community members an opportunity to properly dispose of old tires.
Siemens Automotive Corporation – Newport News, VA
Siemens Automotive Corporation’s Newport News, Virginia, facility saved $27,750 in 2000 by reusing pallets internally instead of purchasing new pallets and recycling the pallets that could not be reused. With a goal of recovering 750 pallets, the organization actually recovered 2,484 pallets for a tremendous cost savings. Additionally, the company conducted an employee awareness program on the reuse of lab coats in its clean rooms, decreasing the disposal of lab coats by 33 percent and saving $20,952.
Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. - IN
Although new to the WasteWise program, Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. already has shown dedication to its waste reduction goals. In 2005, Subaru of Indiana reached its goal of becoming the first North American auto-assembly plant to reach zero-landfill status. Plus, the company’s waste prevention program is thriving with the refurbishment and repair of more than 2,500 tons of steel and more than 10 tons of plastic products.