Ford complex achieves landfill-free status

Ford Motor Co., headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, has announced that after two years of hard work and planning, the historical Ford Rouge Center has achieved landfill-free status. It is the company’s largest complex to send zero waste to landfill.

“It’s an incredible achievement,” says Gary Johnson, Ford North America manufacturing vice president. “With 16 million square feet of factory floor space and approximately 7,000 employees it was a challenge, but we’ve succeeded in finding solutions for our manufacturing waste streams.”

When a facility is given landfill-free status, it means absolutely no manufacturing waste from the facility goes to any landfills. The center is now able to keep more than 14 million pounds of material out of landfills—enough to fill the beds of more than 4,400 Ford F-150 trucks—the company says.

“Since 2004, the historical Ford Rouge Center has served as the model of 21st century sustainable manufacturing,” Johnson says. “Two years ago we instituted a closed-loop recycling system, where we recycle up to 20 million pounds of aluminum stamping scrap each month, which is the equivalent to 30,000 F-150 bodies. In addition, the plant has one of the largest living roofs in the world, which helps us reduce energy usage by keeping the plant warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.”

The six facilities at the Ford Rouge Center join 68 other Ford facilities around the world in achieving zero waste to landfill. Ford says the process of diverting waste at the Rouge was tough because of the number of facilities there. Ford environmental engineers had to look at all of the waste streams at each plant.

One particularly difficult question was how to handle the swarf, or the metal shavings and chips that are created when metal is ground during the engine manufacturing process at Dearborn Engine Plant. The team found a machine called a briquetter that could transform the metal back into a brick that can be recycled. Any coolant oil on the metal shavings is squeezed out during the process and reused, according to the company.

In another case, long plastic rivet strips needed to be chopped into small pieces so they could be recycled.

Ford’s sustainability efforts are not only good for the environment, they also make good business sense. The company says it is improving recycling and energy recovery efforts and is identifying waste streams it can avoid bringing into facilities in the first place.

“Our global waste strategy commits Ford to reducing waste to landfill, and we have made great progress in our facilities around the world,” says Andy Hobbs, Ford Motor Co. director, Environmental Quality Office. “We are proud of the efforts of our employees worldwide in their commitment to helping Ford reduce its global environmental footprint and especially pleased with this achievement at our iconic Ford Rouge Center.”

With about 203,000 employees and 67 plants worldwide, the Ford Motor Co.’s core business includes designing, manufacturing, marketing and servicing a full line of Ford cars, trucks and SUVs, as well as Lincoln luxury vehicles.