Promat’s US business has completed its first full year as a zero-landfill manufacturing facility.
To acknowledge this achievement, the Promat US plant – based in Maryville, TN – was presented a hanging wall poster from iSustain Recycling highlighting the environmental impact of its efforts. Some of the savings made include:
- 45 tons of air pollution (41 metric tonnes)
- 72,002 KWh of electricity
- 358 cubic yards (274 m³)
It was a challenging undertaking, but the results are impressive and show our teammates’ strong commitment to a better and greener planet. Promat is looking forward to continuing to make our world a better place to live.
Recycling and “waste-to-energy”
Landfills are the largest human-made contributors of methane – a very potent greenhouse gas – into the atmosphere. By preventing waste from ending up on landfills, Promat is reducing its carbon footprint significantly.
Waste reduction activities and employee awareness are important pillars to achieve zero landfill. Promat also prevents its waste ending up on landfill with three main activities: recycling, on-site food waste digestion and waste-to-energy processes.
Recycling materials like paper, glass and metals not only reduces the amount of waste ending up on landfills, but it is also a more energy-efficient process than producing products from extracted raw materials. For example, using recycled scraps to make aluminium cans uses 95% less energy than making cans from raw materials!
Food and other organic waste is not be composted but put in on-site solar bio-digesters, where it is broken down in aerobic conditions to reduce methane production.
Waste to energy is a process in which waste is converted into alternative engineered fuels (AEF). Waste types including non-halogenated plastics, carpet, wood and foam products are processed and blended into a useable and sellable solid fuel. The use of this fuel offsets the use of natural resources like coal, petroleum-based fuels and natural gas, in the production of cement and electricity.