Haworth Progresses Toward Zero-landfill Waste Status

by | Dec 29, 2009

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haworth_1.k84pj9b0mps0g8occggkos8s.17ldmg3f9ou8088wk04c40sgo.thThe 10 U.S. manufacturing facilities of furniture-maker Haworth Inc. have achieved zero-landfill status, meaning that all waste is reused or recycled.

The Holland, Mich.-based company’s U.S. distribution center also has gone zero-landfill, reports the Holland Sentinal.

In 2008, the company processed 47 million pounds of recycling, and that figure is expected to be much higher in 2009. What can’t be recycled at each individual factory is stuffed into the empty spaces of a truck going back to the Holland facility.

What can’t be recycled or reused is incinerated to produce energy at a Grand Rapids, Mich., alternative energy plant.

The company’s U.S. facilities produce 4.6 million pounds of landfill waste in 2008, and zero in 2009, according to the Sentinal.

In addition to going zero-landfill at its U.S. facilities, Haworth has achieved the goal at its Shanghai and Pune, India, factories. Any remaining facilities that are not yet at zero-landfill status are intended to be by 2011.

In 2008, Haworth found that about 20 percent of CO2 emissions from truck shipping could be reduced by protecting products protected with reusable wrappings and equipment instead of cardboard boxes.

By using blankets, straps, bars and plywood tiers, the company was able to fit an average of about 65 percent more products into its trailers, reducing the number of loads needed and eliminating cardboard waste.

During a study to prove the methods, Haworth eliminated the need to make 11 truckload shipments, which would have emitted more than 27 metric tons of CO2 from burnt diesel fuel alone.

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