P&G Achieves Zero Manufacturing Waste at 45 Sites Worldwide

The consumer products company Procter & Gamble (P&G), headquartered in Cincinnati, has announced that 45 of its facilities have achieved zero manufacturing waste to landfill, marking a major step towards P&G’s long-term vision of sending no manufacturing and consumer waste to landfills.

According to a company news release, over the past five years P&G's work to find worth in waste has created more than $1 billion in value for the company. Steve Owens, a member of P&G Sustainability and Technical Expert Advisory Panel, says, “P&G is a global leader in sustainability, and the company’s zero manufacturing waste initiative is setting a standard for others to follow.”

“We have a vision for the future, where plants are powered by renewable energy, products are made from recycled and renewable materials and resources are conserved, with no waste going to landfill,” says Bob McDonald, P&G president, CEO and chairman. “Changing the way we see waste as a company has brought us one step closer to this goal at 45 sites worldwide, where all of our manufacturing waste is recycled, repurposed or converted into energy.”

P&G says that since announcing its first zero manufacturing waste to landfill site in Budapest in 2007 the company has shared a long-term Environmental Vision, pledging to work toward zero consumer and manufacturing waste worldwide. Through its quality assurance, packaging reduction, compaction and recycling efforts, P&G says it now ensures that 99 percent of all materials entering its plants leave as finished product or is recycled, reused or converted into energy.

The company adds that less than 1 percent of all the materials entering its sites leases as waste.

The P&G release highlighted several steps the company has taken to achieve zero landfill status. In Mexico, the company converted paper sludge from a Charmin toilet tissue plant into low-cost roof tiles used to build homes in the local community.

At a U.S. Pampers site, scrap from the wipe manufacturing process is converted to upholstery filling. And, in the United Kingdom, waste created in the production of Gillette shaving foam is composted then used to grow turf for commercial uses.

Forbes McDougall, who leads P&G’s global zero manufacturing waste program, says, “We focused on finding solutions for our toughest waste streams at our largest sites, and while initially we saw progress in our overall corporate recycling, the increase in zero landfill sites was slow. Today, we have found ways to divert most of our major waste streams away from landfill, so we’re now seeing new sites achieve zero manufacturing waste to landfill nearly every month.”