SCA Achieves First Zero-Waste-To-Landfill Plant in North America

SCA announced its first zero-waste-to-landfill manufacturing plant in North America. The plant, in Bowling Green, Ky., manufactures SCA’s Tena line of incontinence products.

The facility, which opened in 1988, had programs in place to recycle about 90 percent of its waste. In 2011, the paper company reviewed waste streams left over from its existing programs to find additional efficiencies. The plant implemented plans for the zero-waste-to-landfill program last September, SCA said.

The zero-waste-to-landfill recycling program consists of segregating manufacturing, office, distribution and maintenance waste into three basic categories: combined recyclable materials, compostable materials and engineered fuel.

The zero-waste facility announcement comes just a few weeks after SCA updated its global sustainability targets. The company said it will increase wind power production on its forest land to 5 TWh by 2020, and will triple production of biofuels from the forests by 2020 from 2010 levels.

SCA said it operates under the premise that no fresh fiber-based material used in production should come from controversial sources, and it aims to set aside about 10 percent of its own forest lands for conservation purposes.

It also affirmed goals to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and from purchased electricity and heating by 20 percent by the year 2020, from 2005 levels, and to cut water consumption in water-stressed regions by 10 percent by 2015, from 2010 levels. All SCA pulp and paper mills will employ mechanical and biological water treatment plants by 2015, the company says.