GM getting waste out of Tonawanda plant

Business First of Buffalo - 2:17 PM EDT Tuesdayby Thomas HartleyBusiness First

Helping the environment is more than a phrase at General Motors Corp.'s Tonawanda engine plant, company officials say.

GM (NYSE: GM) used a news conference at the River Road plant Tuesday morning to announce that the facility has become the second company plant in the United States and one of the few automotive plants in the world to attain landfill-free status.

More than 95 percent of the waste generated by the plant's manufacturing operations -- 23,233 tons annually -- is recycled, the company said.
Of the remaining 5 percent, nearly all of the 1,060 tons is converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities.

The plant, which produced 1.1 million engines in 2005 and is one of the company's most efficient engine plants, has been working to achieve the zero landfill status since 2001.

Elizabeth Lowery, GM vice president of environment and energy said in a statement from corporate headquarters that the plant's achievement is an example of GM's goal of reducing waste into "meaningful progress" at its manufacturing sites.

"Consider the size of the plant," she said. "It has 2,500 people on site and produces over 4,000 engines a day -- yet it doesn't send any waste from those operations to a landfill."

By contrast, the average American generates several pounds of waste a day that will eventually end up in a landfill, she noted.

The 1,060 tons of plant waste used to produce energy is equal to the amount of coal burned to provide the annual electricity needs of more than 250 homes, the company said at the news conference.

The plant has reduced its energy use by more than 30 percent since 2000 and received GM's Energy Star Performer Award in 2005.

Among the engines produced at the local facility is the V-6 E85 FlexFuel engine. The FlexFuel engine operates on gasoline or a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

The plant has produced almost 170,000 FlexFuel engines, Manager John Crabtree said. The engines are installed in Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo automobiles.

GM says it has more than 1.5 million vehicles on the road in all 50 states.


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