DETROIT, Mich., May 7, 2010 -- General Motors has announced that 62 of its manufacturing plants have achieved “zero landfill” status. Instead of throwing plant-generated waste in the garbage, GM is recycling or reusing the material. With the addition of these 62 plants, 43 percent of GM’s global manufacturing facilities send zero waste to landfills.

“We’ve been working for quite some time at eliminating waste and developing support systems to recycle or reuse wastes we can’t yet eliminate,” said Mike Robinson, GM vice president of Environment, Energy and Safety policy. “These plants have taken this process to its highest level. They are leading General Motors and the worldwide manufacturing industry.”

In 2008, GM said it wanted to convert half of its major manufacturing plants to landfill-free facilities. Today, GM is 87 percent on its way to reaching that goal.

GM’s landfill-free GM plants include 27 facilities in North America, 21 facilities in Asia-Pacific and Latin America and 14 facilities in Europe.

According to the company, some of the materials recycled at GM’s zero landfill sites this year will include 650,000 tons of scrap metal, 16,600 tons of wood, 21,600 tons of cardboard, and 3,600 tons of plastic.

On average, more than 97 percent of waste materials from GM’s zero landfill plants are recycled or reused and about 3 percent is converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities replacing fossil fuels.

“Reducing the impact of our manufacturing facilities is an important component of our efforts to remove the automobile from the environmental equation,” Robinson said. “We are actively pursuing ways to improve fuel economy, reduce oil consumption and reduce the CO2 emissions of our vehicles. Our work, however, goes beyond our vehicles to improving the environmental performance of our operations, too.”