How RecycleMax's Total Waste Management Program Helped Automotive Companies in Waste Diversion and Cost Reduction
Total Waste Management (“TWM”) is a strategy in which all hazardous and non-hazardous wastes generated by a company’s facilities are assigned to one vendor. This arrangement can reduce environmental impact, streamline related procurement and accounting processes, facilitate intercompany communication, and reduce overall costs.
For over 30 years, RecycleMax, Inc. – based in Detroit, Michigan – has been a leader in providing TWM programs to industrial, commercial, and governmental facilities across North America. We have unparalleled expertise in creating recycling and waste management systems, deep industry knowledge for all material types, market relationships that get things done, a cutting-edge online platform for convenient program management, and a unique “open-book” system that facilitates long-term trust and success with our customers.
The Customer
A & B Companies are sister automotive suppliers based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Although they have a strong corporate purchasing team, they were over-stretched and realized that they:
- were still disposing of too much material that could be recycled or diverted from landfilling
- didn’t have a comprehensive system for collecting and distributing data
- were spending too much on waste disposal and
- had no real centralized data or control over what was happening in each of their plants.
In October 2020, they implemented a TWM program designed and managed by RecycleMax in conjunction with a minority-owned partner company. The program covered its 14 facilities in the US and Canada. Along with consolidating waste management operations, the goals of the program were to:
- reduce waste disposal costs
- maximize resource recycling
- comply with governmental regulations and
- demonstrate positive environmental leadership to customers, community, employees, and shareholders.
The Program
RecycleMax immediately went to work and began optimizing its processes.
- Existing vendors were notified of the program and reassigned to consolidate the ordering of services, contract negotiation, invoice processing, and payment.
- Contracts and invoices for the year prior to the program were obtained from vendors and audited, uncovering overbilling for disposal services and underpayments for recycled material.
- Onsite and virtual meetings were held with the management teams at each of the plants to review current processes, material waste streams, requirements, and needs.
- RecycleMax evaluated the costs, volumes, and needs of each facility, researched equipment options, met with current and prospective contractors/recyclers/haulers, and developed a series of recommendations that maximized environmental benefits, production efficiency, and cost savings.
- RecycleMax worked with Purchasing, Plant Management, and employees to get improvements/new programs approved, implemented, coordinated, and managed all changes.
- All program service management, issue-tracking, and reporting were centralized on an industry-leading online platform on RecycleMax.com, giving all facilities seamless information sharing and real-time data.
- On a monthly basis, RecycleMax and Corporate Purchasing meet to review costs, performance issues, and proposed initiatives for each plant.
- Improvements and savings keep coming, bit by bit and sometimes in chunks!
The Results
Despite being launched during the height of the COVID pandemic that severely restricted onsite visits and interactions, the RecycleMax team was able to systematically implement changes at each plant that had the following results:
- 100% consolidation of all procurement, accounting, and management of waste management activities, freeing Purchasing and Plant Management for bigger, more significant projects
- 91.93% annual diversion of wastes from landfilling (last twelve-month average)
- The recycling of 7,092.44 tons of materials like cardboard, wood pallets, metals, plastics, electronic wastes, and tires (twelve-month period ending February 2022) for an annual greenhouse gas reduction of 4,848 tons
- A 94.5% reduction in costs (at times, the companies have a net credit for waste removal) and already achieving $1 million+ annual savings (see chart below)
- Corporate Communications is happy, too, relieved to finally have a streamlined source for program information and eager to start sharing program successes with A & B Companies’ stakeholders.
