GM achieves landfill-free milestone
Europe is the first General Motors region to achieve a 100% landfill-free status for its manufacturing plants.
GM announced the news after Opel/Vauxhall declared 23 of its European facilities as landfill-free, meaning they recycle, reuse or convert to energy all waste from daily operations. With the additions of Luton Assembly and Ellesmere Port Assembly in Great Britain, GM’s industry-leading landfill-free count now totals 131 facilities.
Its target is 150 landfill-free sites globally by 2020.
Jim DeLuca, GM executive vice president of Global Manufacturing, ‘Our global progress in waste reduction is possible because of employee participation, creative ideas, and a strong supplier network. Our teams understand the positive impact of this initiative and they drive it in their facilities every day.’
Dr Renate Adam, manager environmental compliance and sustainability, Opel/Vauxhall Europe, added, ‘We at Opel/Vauxhall see waste as a resource out of place and want to go beyond the classical waste reduction targets that you usually reach by optimization of existing processes.
‘Only if you understand waste as raw material you start to rethink your current processes and develop new ways to run your business differently. Strategically we do not only want to be landfill-free, we want to improve the re-use of material.’
