GM Recycles Its Garbage
USA Today reports that by (could it be? Yes, it is!) 2010, half of GM’s 181 manufacturing sites around the world will be “zero landfill.” In other words, The General’s factories won’t send most their industrial waste to the dump. Instead, GM’s plant trash will be recycled, sold for scrap or incinerated. “Ten GM plants, including an engine plant in Flint, Mich., already are landfill-free, and GM will have about 80 more producing little or no waste within 20 months, according to a source who would not be named because the announcement has not been made. GM had no comment.” Well, in fact, GM issued a press release on this, but I guess the whole Watergate meme is better when it comes time for that USA Today reporters’ pay review. Anyway, the EPA and GM are tighterthanthis, apparently. “The Environmental Protection Agency has worked for more than a decade with GM and other companies to cut waste through its WasteWise program. ‘The success of General Motors in creating zero-landfill facilities shows that zero-waste goals can be a powerful impetus for manufacturers to reduce their waste and carbon footprint,’ says Latisha Petteway, a spokesperson for the EPA.” And it sure won’t hurt GM’s PR campaign for their share of that $50b pot of gold at the end of the low-interest federal loans for re-tooling rainbow…
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Raskolnikov : I think the obvious difference between GM pursuing this and Toyota and Honda pursuing it, is that the latter two are not losing billions of dollars every quarter. They have competitive products that are outselling or threatening to outsell GM's best efforts, and they show no signs of slowing their competitive gains on the American auto industry. I'll give credit were credit is due, but I also admire a company that recognizes where its weak areas are and where it needs to focus its increasingly spare resources in order to strengthen itself. I'm not sure that converting existing factories to zero landfill is going to help GM recover from its current situation. Is this where they would determine their share of the $50b Government technology investment should go? Or would they use it for product development to strengthen their bottom line? GM should be an automotive engineering and manufacturing company first, and an environmental engineering company second. Bottom line is that overflowing, stinking, rat-infested landfills really shouldn't be GM's concern at the moment. But kudos anyway.
Joe Horner: Well put. "Me, Myself, and I" is a terrible attitude. Everything has direct and indirect costs, both economic and social. Dumping the social costs of a company on the surrounding areas is morally bankrupt. Ben and Jerry's had the right idea with the concept of "caring capitalism." Return something to the community that helps you make your money.
Conversion of trash into energy by plasma is the latest technology. Pilot plant in operation. Enviros oppose.