Ground zero: Companies part of movement to eliminate landfills By: D. Ray Tuttle The Journal Record April 21, 2014 TULSA – The zero-landfill movement, something that did not exist a few years ago in corporate America, is gaining momentum and today is a strategy to save money and boost environmental credibility. On Tuesday, the Wheel and Brake Center at the American Airlines Tulsa plant plans to announce that it has reversed its environmental footprint. American is celebrating the status with an announcement on Earth Day. The Wheel and Brake Center was the first American Airlines facility to reverse its disposal process, Paul Flaningan, AA spokesman, said in a statement on Monday. Now it’s the first in the industry to achieve zero-landfill status by completely eliminating landfill waste, he said. “We achieved sustainability in a region where landfills are commonly used and inexpensive,” Flaningan said. Attempts to speak to American Airlines officials by press time were not successful. Companies are able to achieve zero-landfill status through persistence, said Matt Newman, business manager at Covanta Energy in Tulsa. The movement is focused on transitioning companies and communities toward resource recovery and environmental protection and away from landfills, according to the website for Zero Landfill Initiative, a nonprofit group. Zero waste is something that can be achieved, Newman said. “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses a three-tiered approach for managing solid waste: reduce, reuse, recycle,” Newman said. Covanta is dedicated to the fourth R, which is recovery, Newman said. Covanta Energy, which has operated a trash-to-energy plant in west Tulsa for nearly 30 years, is a global operator of energy-from-waste and power generator projects. “When you cannot do the four Rs you take the material to the landfill, which is lowest on the hierarchy,” Newman said on Monday. The first three Rs are self-explanatory. “Fortune 500 companies across the country, like American Airlines, focus on the first three Rs,” Newman said. ”Once you have accomplished those, the fourth R is recovery of energy from the products you cannot reduce, reuse or recycle – or, those things in which it is cost-prohibitive to do so.” Whether zero-landfill status can be verified depends on rules established to measure progress in various states, how the program is set up or what specific corporate landfill diversion techniques have been spelled out. Many programs are voluntary. “There is no United States mandate that says, ‘Thou shall do these things,’” Newman said. “Verifiability status can be tracked in a company’s sustainability reports.” Newman said re-engineering and rethinking how to manage waste are doable. “You look for goals that are easy to attain,” Newman said. “You accomplish those first, then you figure out how to prioritize. Sometimes it is not easy. It takes a bit longer to attain zero-landfill strategies, but they are attainable.”
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 10:54:55 +0000
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