Procter & Gamble this week announced plans to eliminate 100 percent of the company's manufacturing waste within four years.
The consumer products giant said that more than half of its 100 production sites worldwide already produce zero manufacturing waste and that the remainder will meet that standard by 2020.
The company proposed additional investments to recycle manufacturing waste or enable "beneficial reuse."
Currently, its facility in Lima, Ohio, coverts waste from laundry detergent production into alternative fuels for vehicles, while plastic laminate materials from two plants in India, which could not ordinarily be recycled, are utilized as building panels. Other materials are repurposed as car wash or materials to contain emergency spills.
Officials added that their steps would keep about 650,000 metric tons of waste out of landfills.
“Since 2010, we’ve been working toward a vision of sending zero manufacturing and consumer waste to landfills," P&G sustainability official Shailesh Jejurikar said in a statement. "This announcement marks another step on that journey.”
