And those last two tenths? "They represent toxic products for which no recycling process currently exists. They're incinerated by Covanta Energy of Indianapolis and become an energy source for the city," Coogan explains.
A question of common sense
At SIA, everything revolves around the "3 Rs": reduce, reuse and recycle, a principle also known as waste hierarchy. Even pop singer Jack Johnson teaches kids about it in a song from the movie Curious George.
"It's a question of common sense," says Coogan. "By reducing the size and weight of the package, we also reduce the production and transportation costs." So in 2002, the 2,800 SIA employees started analysing the actions involved in production and management processes. The results of the ongoing study took several different forms.
"The brass washers, which we use for all kinds of things and which were simply thrown away before, are now collected and reused. Same thing for the tiny pop rivets, which we now recycle."
In some cases, the impact is huge. "By optimizing the length of the steel coils used to create chassis and body parts, we eliminated 46 kg of wasted steel. Before, we used to waste several metres of steel during this process. Now, losses are measured in centimetres," says Coogan with a smile.
The employees get involved
Most of the good ideas come from the base of the pyramid, the assembly line workers. For example, one day one of the workers reportedly asked why he had to throw out the styrofoam trays in which arrived the connecting rods of the engines they assembled there. "We realized that we could reuse them. After talking with the supplier, we established a recycling procedure, and today the trays are used four, five, even six times instead of only once," states Coogan.
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| Denise Coogan, in charge of SIA's environmental initiatives, shows us one of the small objects they recycle: the pop rivet. |
A question of common sense
At SIA, everything revolves around the "3 Rs": reduce, reuse and recycle, a principle also known as waste hierarchy. Even pop singer Jack Johnson teaches kids about it in a song from the movie Curious George.
"It's a question of common sense," says Coogan. "By reducing the size and weight of the package, we also reduce the production and transportation costs." So in 2002, the 2,800 SIA employees started analysing the actions involved in production and management processes. The results of the ongoing study took several different forms.
"The brass washers, which we use for all kinds of things and which were simply thrown away before, are now collected and reused. Same thing for the tiny pop rivets, which we now recycle."
In some cases, the impact is huge. "By optimizing the length of the steel coils used to create chassis and body parts, we eliminated 46 kg of wasted steel. Before, we used to waste several metres of steel during this process. Now, losses are measured in centimetres," says Coogan with a smile.
The employees get involved
Most of the good ideas come from the base of the pyramid, the assembly line workers. For example, one day one of the workers reportedly asked why he had to throw out the styrofoam trays in which arrived the connecting rods of the engines they assembled there. "We realized that we could reuse them. After talking with the supplier, we established a recycling procedure, and today the trays are used four, five, even six times instead of only once," states Coogan.
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| These styrofoam trays, in which the connecting rods arrive, carry a label indicating the number of times they've been used. |