PROBLEM
Volkswagen produces cars in the Chattanooga production facility. In the nearly 3 million square foot facility, parts are stored in a warehouse and then brought to the production line as needed.
These parts come in their own packaging that is removed, leaving boxes, plastic, wood, and other debris in the warehouse areas before sending to production line. MPW placed large gondola trash receptacles for the collection of these materials within the facility. The gondolas are collected throughout the day and returned to sorting areas to separate the different substrates and dividing the waste into both hazardous and non-hazardous bins.
Volkswagen categorizes the total waste into a per car amount. MPW was challenged in 2021 to reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfill by 50%. The waste produced from parts and the creation of automobiles called for more sorting and recycling to get to this new goal. MPW wanted to develop this plan with Volkswagen to create a more sustainable, environmentally friendly waste program.
SOLUTION
MPW started with waste streams identified as those with the largest weights going to the landfill. We then identified outlets for those materials which resulted in the lowest cost to Volkswagen, less landfill waste and a more sustainable lifecycle of the unneeded materials.
From there, MPW increased the on-site sorting methods and worked with Volkswagen on better ways to collect material at the point of generation resulting in more waste going to a single stream recycler.
RESULTS
MPW was successful in reducing the landfill waste by 58% per vehicle. We were able to save more than the originally proposed goal, bringing Volkswagen one step closer in the push to go zero-waste to landfill in the future.
With MPW Environmental Management Services, your goals are our goals, and we would love to find a solution that gets you one step closer to your waste management objectives.