General Motors recycles water bottles to make auto parts

General Motors (GM) has found a novel way to reuse plastic water bottles for making auto parts and accessories. The company is turning its employees’ recycled water bottles into a new life: noise-reducing fabric insulation that covers the Chevrolet Equinox engine. The plastic bottles - collected from five of its Michigan facilities - are also being turned into air filtration components and insulation in coats for the homeless community.
 
Given its drive to zero waste, all of GM’s global facilities recycle their water bottles. However, the bottles collected at the five locations are now funnelled into its ‘Do Your Part’ project, where 11 businesses collaborate to give them a second life.
 
The air filtration components are used in General Motors facilities to protect air quality; and the insulation goes into Empowerment Plan coats that transform into sleeping bags.
 
“Recycling is good, but viewing waste as a valuable resource that can be plugged into your operations or products is even better. It is about rethinking the process and finding more sustainable ways to manufacture products and contribute to our communities,” said John Bradburn, GM global manager of waste reduction.
 
GM pursued this project after analysing its impacts from a holistic business case. Sourcing recycled material costs the same while saving energy and reducing waste.
 
“Many of today’s businesses are challenging the take-make-dispose model and seeing the benefits of a more circular economy. From closed-loop recycling to helping launch material reuse networks, GM is thinking differently and getting other companies to join in,” said Andrew Mangan, executive director of the US Business Council for Sustainable Development.
 
General Motors demonstrates how a supply chain can become a supply web where business opportunities stem from an original project, furthering the mission and driving more social and economic impact.
 
  Each partner engaged in this initiative brings specific capabilities. Hamtramck Recycling bails the plastic bottles collected from GM’s world headquarters at the Renaissance Center, Warren Technical Center, and Orion Assembly, Flint Tool and Die, and Flint Engine plants. Clean Tech Inc. washes the bottles and converts them to flake. Unifi Inc recycles the bottle flake into resin. Palmetto Synthetics processes the resin to create fibres and William Burnett & Co processes the fibres into various forms of fleece, serving all three applications.
 
Rogers Foam Corp die cuts the fleece and EXO-s attaches it into the nylon cover for the Chevrolet Equinox V6 engine. The part helps further dampen engine noise to deliver a quiet ride.
 
Filtration Services Group works with New Life Center, a nonprofit jobs development and training mission in Flint, to make the panels for the air filtration fleece, which is then sent to 10 GM facilities.
 
The coat insulation is sent to Carhartt, a workwear company in Detroit, who cuts it to size for The Empowerment Plan.
 
General Motors is also working with various organisations such as Schupan Recycling in Flint to collect additional water bottles to plug into the project.
 
GM uses recycled content in many of its vehicles. Cardboard from various GM plants is recycled into a sound-dampening material in the Buick Verano headliner; plastic caps and shipping aids from its Fort Wayne facility are mixed with other materials to make radiator shrouds for the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra; and test tires from Milford Proving Ground are shredded and used in the manufacturing of air and water baffles for a variety of GM cars.
 
General Motors has 131 landfill-free facilities around the world and recycles the equivalent of 38 million garbage bags of by-products each year.