GM expands its Do Your Part recycling program

General Motors, headquartered in Detroit, has announced that it is adding 2 million water bottles from Flint, Michigan, residents to its Do Your Part water bottle recycling initiative. The company partnered with Michigan-based Schupan Recycling to collect and process the bottles.

The collected plastic is washed, flaked and turned into fleece to make three products: Chevrolet Equinox V-6 engine covers, insulation for coats for the homeless that are made by Detroit's The Empowerment Plan and air filters that are used at 10 General Motor plants. 

“We’re committed to proving to employers that formerly homeless people can be a skilled talent pool,” says Veronika Scott, founder and CEO of The Empowerment Plan, which seeks to educate, employ and empower homeless individuals to create better lives for themselves and their families while producing a product for those in need. “The end product is more than a coat: It empowers women to take control of their lives and provides the path to long-term, sustainable jobs.”

GM is donating enough insulation for The Empowerment Plan’s seamstresses—formerly homeless women—to make 6,500 coats that transform into sleeping bags that are given to those in need at no cost. Each coat contains 31 water bottles.

The GM supplier Filtration Services Group, headquartered in Waterford, Michigan, involved the N.E.W. Life Center in Flint to make air filter panels from the 9,000 square feet of fleece created since Do Your Part launched in April of 2016.

After at-risk individuals participate in programs dedicated to employment preparation or life change, the nonprofit training center employs them to further develop their skills.

An estimated 1.2 million bottles from five GM facilities throughout metro Detroit and Flint supplemented the 2 million bottles coming from the Flint community.

GM recently added its Romulus Powertrain plant to the Do Your Part program.

“People want to do the right thing,” says John Bradburn, GM global waste reduction manager. “The Do Your Part recycling initiative is a way our employees and communities can connect their individual actions to broader social and environmental causes.”