While not a manufacturer of green cars per se, Subaru at least makes the gas-guzzlers in an eco-friendly way. The website for the company’s manufacturing plant in Lafayette, Indiana almost looks like an environmental activist page because, well, it is. It serves as representation for the only Subaru plant in the U.S., and possibly the only car-making plant in the world that can boast having zero-waste/zero-landfill status. According to Tom Easterday, Senior Vice President of Subaru of Indiana Automotive, the plant has a recycling rate of 99.8 percent, and it’s been almost four years since the factory sent a load of waste directly to a landfill. About 97 percent of all excess or leftover materials like steel, plastic, wood, paper, and glass to go recycling outlets. The remaining percentage goes to incinerators in Indianapolis to help generate steam. That means most families throw out more garbage than the auto plant, which makes nearly 200,000 cars a year or more. Science Today examined the factory, explaining:
A big chunk of that savings comes from making less waste when cutting out the car pieces from the blanking press, similar to cutting the most cookies from a rolled-out sheet of cookie dough. By cutting the car parts more efficiently, the plant has reduced its steel use by 47 percent since 2000. Plus, the company estimates that its CO2 emissions are down 20 percent in that time.
Subaru reuses just about anything else in the factory as well, including wood pallets and a variety of oil products. The company even takes the plastic, styrofoam, and steel braces the car parts come in and sends them back to the suppliers for continuous usage. The motivation for the company’s efforts may stem from the additional profits recycling provides. Extra styrofoam more times than none goes to factories that produce beanbag furniture. Excess paint from the cars forms into a sludge-like substance that can also be sold to companies who produce railroad ties, parking lot bumpers, and inner padding in bicycle helmets. In 2006 the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged Subaru’s environmental consciousness with the Gold Achievement Award—a status incentive for companies to go green.
