Ford Achieves Landfill-Free Status in Canada

Ford Motor Co. said its Oakville, Ontario, assembly plant achieved zero waste-to-landfill status, making the vehicle maker landfill free at all its manufacturing facilities in Canada.

The Oakville facility now sends no operational waste to landfill. The facility is Ford’s first assembly plant in North America to achieve that environmental designation, the Dearborn, Mich.-based company said in a news release.

In 2013 the plant, Ford’s largest manufacturing facility in Canada at nearly 5.5 million square feet, recycled nearly 2,000 metric tons of wood, cardboard, paper and plastic, saving more than 5,000 cubic meters of landfill space and more than 32 million liters of water. The plant also sends its wastewater treatment plant sludge to a power generation company for it to be converted to energy.

“Ford is very proud that all its Canadian manufacturing facilities are sending zero waste to landfill,” said Joe Hinrichs, president of the Americas for Ford. “We are expanding our manufacturing footprint in Oakville while decreasing our environmental footprint.”

Ford now has 21 facilities globally that maintain zero waste-to-landfill status. The move will help Ford achieve its target of reducing global waste to landfill by 40 percent per vehicle produced from 2011 to 2016. Ford already reduced that waste by 40 percent from 2007 to 2011.