Waste Management
Ford's environmental goals include reducing the amount and toxicity of manufacturing-related wastes and ultimately eliminating the disposal of waste in landfills. Manufacturing byproducts include both hazardous and nonhazardous wastes. Ford has chosen to target eliminating the landfill of hazardous waste first, because this provides the quickest and most cost-effective benefits to human health and the environment.
In 2006, as part of our effort to continually improve our hazardous and nonhazardous waste reduction efforts, we began switching our data collection over to the European waste classification system. This system is a good fit for our waste streams and will allow improved benchmarking and comparison. This change was also part of our Global Emissions Manager database launch. Our data-collection process improvements are helping our facilities continue to develop new methods of reducing and better managing waste.
In 2008, Ford facilities globally sent more than 88,000 metric tons of waste to landfill, a decrease of more than 22 percent compared to 2007. Also in 2008, Ford facilities globally generated more than 47,000 metric tons of hazardous waste, a decrease of more than 10 percent from 2007.
We are committed to reducing waste at all of our facilities. For example, in 2007 we implemented a new paint line purging process at our Kentucky Truck Plant that replaces the former purge solution with a VOC-free material. This new material eliminates a formerly hazardous waste stream. Since implementation, this process has eliminated 74 tons of VOCs from the plant's waste stream. It has also eliminated more than 260,000 gallons of hazardous waste. The now nonhazardous waste stream is used by Waste Management, Inc., in a bioreactor to facilitate its landfill-gas-to-energy recovery process. This new purge process also reduces VOC air emissions from the paint process.
In 2008, we implemented a new paint primer technology at our Twin Cities and St. Thomas Assembly plants. This technology reduces a hazardous sludge waste stream and eliminates a hazardous wastewater stream; it also has the potential to reduce water usage.
Managers at all of our plants continually strive to increase their waste recycling.
In 2008, for example, the Lima Engine Plant in Lima, Ohio, achieved continued improvements in its recycling program. The plant recycled 11,185 tons of scrap metal, 13 tons of cardboard, 6 tons of office paper and 14 tons of wood and wooden pallets. This recycling program saved enough timber resources to produce more than 3.7 million sheets of newspaper and enough power to fulfill the annual needs of more than 3,350 homes. It also avoided the generation of 6,390 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
In Europe, our Dagenham facility has prevented more than 12,600 metric tons of waste from being sent to landfills for disposal, via waste reduction and increased recycling. For example, metal filings and other waste from the machining process are squeezed dry of lubricants and then sold as briquettes for recycling. In addition, 20,000 square meters of floor concrete removed to install new engine lines was reused in the flooring of the new production line.
Similarly, when we redesigned our Michigan Proving Grounds in 2008, we saved 130,000 tons of asphalt and concrete from going to the landfill by reusing it to resurface the new track. For more information on the sustainability of this redevelopment effort, please see the Michigan Proving Ground Green Redevelopment case study.