Kolman’s Komments: Did someone say zero waste?

More and more companies, especially the larger manufacturers, are trying to not only reduce their waste, but produce no waste. The approach is to create a closed-loop system that reuses resources rather than creating waste.

One such company doing this is Daimler Trucks North America.

I had a chance to see its landfill-free “operation” at its powertrain component brand Detroit’s Redford, Mich., manufacturing facility during a visit there late last year.

Here is a breakdown of where some of the plant’s items end up:

- Plastic – Recycled to make more plastic.

- Cardboard – Recycled to make more cardboard.

- Scrap Metal – Sent to a steel mill.

- Filter media – Machine processed and used in cement manufacturing.

- Wooden pallets – Sold to pallet recycling plants, mended and reused.

- Returnable dunnage – Sent back to suppliers.

- General trash – Incinerated to create energy.

- White paper – Recycled.

- Aerosol cans – Recycled.

- Bottles and cans – Recycled.

The plant incinerates recyclable trash because when materials break down in landfills, they emit methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon, plant officials explains. Incineration also provides cheap alternative energy and saves the use of dwindling carbon-based fuels for energy.