DuPont Business Innovations Achieves Zero to Landfill Status

by | Jan 12, 2012

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Chemical sciences firm DuPont has achieved zero to landfill status in its Building Innovations arm.

After three years of effort, the “Drive to Zero” program has reduced the Business Innovations arm’s environmental footprint from 81 million pounds of landfill waste annually to zero, DuPont says.

Materials that previously may have been destined for a landfill but are now being reused or recycled, include:

–    Sanding waste from the manufacture of Dupont’s Corian and Zodiaq surfaces is used as a filler replacement in concrete;
–    Ground-up scrap Corian sheet is used as recycled content in other DuPont products
–    Crushed scrap Corian is sold for use as road sub-base material and as landscape stone;
–    Tyvek building wrap and flashing manufacturing trim is recycled into other DuPont materials;
–    Shipping pallets are repaired, reused, or ground into animal bedding;
–    Carrier belt film is melted and used to make adhesives, and
–    Cafeteria waste is recycled into worm bedding or converted into energy.

In August last year, construction firm Wates announced that it had reduced the amount of its waste being sent to landfill from 47 percent in 2005 to 5 percent in 2010.  The project was designed to see if the company could send zero waste to landfills.

Other companies targeting zero waste to landfill include cosmetics firm Avon and Anvil Knitware. Both companies are aiming to achieve the goal by 2020.

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