A Milestone for Honda Plants

Honda's Alliston plant is one of the 10 plants with zero waste

10 of Honda's 14 North American plants have achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status. The remaining four are functioning with “virtually zero” waste-to-landfill, according to the company, which said it has achieved one of the most important targets in its longstanding “Green Factory” initiative.

Honda’s plant in Lincoln, Alabama became the first zero-waste-to-landfill auto plant in North America when it began production in 2001. Another plant in Greensburg, Indiana also started production similarly in 2008.

Waste sent to landfills has been reduced at Honda’s North American plants from 28.4 kg per vehicle produced in fiscal-year 2001 to an estimated 0.8 kg in the current fiscal year 2012. Among all of its 14 plants, Honda now sends less than one-half of one per cent of all operating waste to landfills, and either recycles or uses the remainder for energy recovery.

“This is an important achievement and a tremendous reflection on the commitment and continuous effort of Honda associates throughout our company over the past ten years to reduce waste from Honda’s production operations,” said Karen Heyob, manager at Honda of America Manufacturing. “This is an even more significant achievement when you consider that we also produce in North America the engines and transmissions that power our products.”

The only two remaining landfill waste streams in all of Honda’s North American production activities are paper, plastic and food waste from cafeterias and break rooms at automobile and motorcycle plants in Mexico, where there is no more environmentally responsible means of disposal; and a non-recyclable byproduct of the paint pretreatment process for aluminum body panels at two Ohio auto plants. Honda is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to identify an alternative means of disposal.