Procter & Gamble, the company behind consumer brands including Pampers, Gillette, Ariel and Tide has announced that 45 of its facilities have now achieved zero manufacturing waste to landfill, which marks a major step towards the company’s long-term vision of sending zero manufacturing and consumer waste to landfills. P&G says that over the past 5 years its work to find worth in waste has created over $1 billion in value for the company.

P&G announced its first zero manufacturing waste to landfill site in Budapest in 2007 and since then, the company has shared a long-term Environmental Vision, pledging to work toward zero consumer and manufacturing waste worldwide. Through quality assurance, packaging reduction, compaction and recycling efforts, the company now ensures that 99% of all materials entering P&G plants leaves as finished product or is recycled, reused or converted to energy. Now, as the company celebrates its 175th year, it says that less than 1% of all materials entering P&G sites globally leaves as waste.

Value from waste

To drive all sites toward zero, P&G has searched for innovative ways to find value in what was once seen as waste. In Mexico, paper sludge from a Charmin toilet tissue plant is turned into low-cost roof tiles used to build homes in the local community. At a U.S. Pampers site, scrap from the wipe manufacturing process is converted to upholstery filling. And, in the U.K., waste created in the production of Gillette shaving foam is composted then used to grow turf for commercial uses. Learn about these and other innovative reuse stories in this short video ‘Worth from Waste’ . . .

Bob McDonald, P&G President, CEO and Chairman of the Board said: “We have a vision for the future, where plants are powered by renewable energy, products are made from recycled and renewable materials and resources are conserved, with no waste going to landfill. Changing the way we see waste as a company has brought us one step closer to this goal at 45 sites worldwide, where all of our manufacturing waste is recycled, repurposed or converted into energy.”

 “P&G is a global leader in sustainability, and the company’s zero manufacturing waste initiative is setting a standard for others to follow,” said Steve Owens, former Assistant Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and member of P&G’S Sustainability and Technical Expert Advisory Panel. “P&G’s efforts are helping protect the environment, conserve precious natural resources, and make our planet cleaner and healthier for our children, families and future generations.”

 “There are well-defined systems for recycling materials like paper, plastic and glass, but our product portfolio is incredibly broad, resulting in a diverse set of waste streams to find sustainable solutions for,” said Dr. Forbes McDougall, who leads P&G’s global zero manufacturing waste program.

“We focused on finding solutions for our toughest waste streams at our largest sites, and while initially we saw progress in our overall corporate recycling, the increase in zero landfill sites was slow. Today, we have found ways to divert most of our major waste streams away from landfill, so we’re now seeing new sites achieve zero manufacturing waste to landfill nearly every month.”