General Motors Expands Global Zero Waste Efforts

General Motors has announced an expansion of its landfill-free program, with every manufacturing plant in Canada, Mexico and South America reaching zero waste status. General Motors now has 142 manufacturing and non-manufacturing facilities operating with zero waste worldwide.

 “We aspire to be a zero waste company with all manufacturing plants achieving landfill-free status,” said Dane Parker, vice president of sustainable workplaces at General Motors, in a statement. “That zero mindset is driven by our local teams and their efforts to find innovative and sustainable solutions that improve the communities where we live and work.”

Canadian manufacturing operations are diverting 100 percent of waste from landfills, and the 79 landfill-free manufacturing facilities worldwide are converting approximately 4 percent of waste into energy and reusing, recycling or composting the rest.

“We don’t see things as they are, but what they could be,” said John Bradburn, global waste reduction manager at General Motors, in a statement. “To us, waste is simply a resource out of place.”