GM Eyes Recycling Water Bottles for Chevy Equinox Parts

General Motors is hell-bent to go the extra mile in environmental sustainability. The company is planning to turn its employees’ recycled water bottles into noise-reducing fabric insulation that covers the powerful Chevrolet Equinox engine.

Collected from five of its Michigan facilities, the bottles are also being turned into air filtration components and insulation in coats for the homeless community.

The American company’s global facilities recycle their waste bottles given its effort to zero waste. However, the bottles gathered at the five locations are now funneled into its “Do Your Part” project, where 11 business work together to give them a second life.

The air filtration components are utilized in GM facilities to secure air quality while the insulation goes into Empowerment Plan coats that turn into sleeping bags.

In a statement, John Bradburn said that recycling is good, but viewing waste as a valuable source that could be plugged into the operations or products is even better. He noted that it is about rethinking the process and finding more sustainable ways to produce products and contribute to their communities.

GM revealed that it pursued this project after analyzing its impacts from a holistic business case:

• sourcing recycled material costs the same while saving energy and reducing waste

engaging a number of companies to process the material in North America reinforces the economy, and

donating 24,000 yards of insulation, which is enough to make 6,500 coats, helps alleviate the conditions of the homeless.

According to U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development executive director Andrew Mangan, a number of today’s businesses are challenging the take-make-dispose model and seeing the benefits of a more circular economy. He added that from closed-loop recycling to helping present material reuse networks, GM is thinking differently and getting other companies to join in.

The company shows how a supply chain can become a supply web where business opportunities stem from an original project, thus furthering the mission and driving more economic and social impact.

Every partner engaged in this initiative brings certain capabilities. Hamtramck Recycling bails the plastic bottles gathered from GM’s world headquarters at the Warren Technical Center, Renaissance Center, and Orion Assembly, Flint Tool and Die, and Flint Engine facilities.

Meanwhile, Clean Tech washes all the bottles collected and converts them into flake. Unifi, Inc. recycles the bottle flake into resin. Palmetto Synthetics processes the resin to create fibers and William T. Burnett & Co. processes the fibers into different forms of fleece, serving all three applications.

Then, Rogers Foam Corp. die cuts the fleece and EXO-s attaches it into the nylon cover for the Chevrolet Equinox V6 engine. Thanks to this part, the engine noise is further dampened to deliver a quiet ride.

Filtration Services Group collaborates with New Life Center, a nonprofit jobs development and training mission in Flint, to make the panels for the air filtration fleece, which is sent to 10 GM facilities. The coat is then sent to Carhartt, a workwear company that cuts it to size for the Empowerment Plan.

Also, GM works with different organizations such as Schupan Recycling in Flint to gather extra water bottles to plug into the project.

The company utilizes recycled content in a number of its vehicles.

Cardboard from different GM facilities is recycled into a sound-dampening material in the Buick Verano headliner; shipping aids and plastic caps from its Fort Wayne plant are mixed with other materials to make radiator shrouds for the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado; and test tires from Milford proving Grounds are shredded and used in the production of air and water baffles for various GM cars.

GM has 131 landfill-free facilities worldwide and recycles the equivalent of 38 million garbage bags of byproducts yearly.