The road to zero
A lot more goes out the door of a modern beverage plant than beverages.
There’s used paper plus cardboard, shrink-wrap, glass, pallet scraps and damaged cans, caps and bottles.
At PBG’s Torrance plant, for example, a waste hauler used to come every day to pick up compacted, mixed trash and haul it away to a landfill. And the next day, more material would come into the plant and more trash would head for the landfill.
That adds up to a lot of wasted energy and raw materials, and it caught the attention of Pablo Cussatti.
At the time, Cussatti was Plant Manager of the Torrance facility. It was there that he decided to dry up the waste stream flowing from his plant into the area’s landfills.
While the plant was already recycling much of its waste, by investing in new processes and equipment to sort, bale and compact recyclables, the plant was able to reduce what would have gone to the landfill by more than 50 percent. Torrance didn’t just cut its solid waste stream in half, it turned it into an income stream, helping to offset its investments in recycling.
When Cussatti was promoted to Vice President of Manufacturing, with responsibilities covering nine plants in California, Nevada and Hawaii, he was ready to see if what had been achieved in Torrance could be replicated at all of his operations. First to act was the Sacramento plant, which is more than twice the size of the Torrance facility. With enough space available for a plant-wide recycling program, the Sacramento plant set a goal in 2007 of sending nothing to the landfill. In 2008 they expect to be at 90 percent of that goal.
Today, a truck comes only two or three times a week to cart away waste. Technically speaking, it’s not waste, because everything from cardboard to glass to plastic goes to the recycling center and then to other plants to be turned into carpets, computer cases, copier paper and hundreds of other products.
“Our people feel good about this,” observes Cussatti. “They see the impact recycling can have on PBG and the environment. Now they understand first-hand that recycling is a way to help make their community a better place to live and PBG a better place to work.”
*Answer: (C) 32.5%
Seeing waste as a resource
To ensure all manufacturing locations are optimizing recycle streams, PBG has hired a third-party consultant to analyze its entire waste stream, identify where materials are going and help us develop ways to avoid landfilling and recycle more. “Ultimately, all organizations should set their sights on sending nothing to landfills,” says John Burns, PBG’s Director of Environmental Management. “At PBG, recycling already is a way of life at our facilities. And by improving the coordination of PBG’s recycling efforts, we are getting closer–faster–to becoming a zero landfill company.”
Did you know...*
About 80 percent of what Americans throw away is recyclable. What is the U.S. recycling rate?1
A 74%
B 45%
C 32.5%
1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency www.epa.gov
