Michael Baird, senior environmental specialist, Milliken & Company, said: “Milliken published an environmental policy in 1990 with a goal of zero waste to landfill as part of our company’s Pursuit of Excellence program. In 1992 our first manufacturing plant achieved zero waste to landfill status, and by 1995 20 plants sent zero waste to landfill.”
Jim Brown, vice president, Sonoco Recycling, said: “Milliken’s sustainability goals match up well with our company’s focus on environmental responsibility, and it is an honour to recognise them with our gold-tier Sonoco Sustainability Star Award.”
To achieve landfill-free status, each location created a baseline by quantifying their solid waste, categorised by type and destination, such as landfill, reused or recycled. An in-house programme was written for a solid waste database, where locations reported data each accounting period. Landfill pounds, indexed to 1989, have been reduced from 1.000 to 0.003, corresponding to an approximately 99.7% reduction in solid waste landfilled.
Source: Sonoco
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