Procter & Gamble

Leading consumer brand, Procter and Gamble (P&G) manufactures household names that include Gillette razors, Pampers, Fairy Liquid and Duracell. In recent years, the company has significantly changed the way it views waste. By actively pursuing a global zero manufacturing waste initiative, P&G has halved its environmental impact between 2002 and 2011 by reducing its carbon emissions by 53%, using 52% less energy and 58% less water. ***The Challenge:*** - Veolia secured the contract in 2010 when P&G performance was at 77.7% beneficial re-use and was acutely aware of P&G’s zero waste to landfill objective. Our challenge was to help realise the beneficial re-use of all waste streams across the Reading facility. ***The Solution:*** - Veolia reviewed and analysed all waste streams with P&G and identified opportunities across the manufacturing facility. This included sourcing a supplier to sort, palletise and transport used cardboard boxes for P&G’s reuse programme. A series of waste audits highlighted materials that had the potential to be recycled or treated through the Veolia network of local treatment facilities. - Predominantly an aerosol manufacturing plant, Veolia was able to help the Reading facility to reprocess every component in its aerosol cans. This included extracting the gases, recycling the metal can itself and processing the organic liquid for Secondary Liquid Fuel (SLF). SLF is subsequently used as an alternative fuel source for kilns in the cement industry. - The site’s organic waste matter derived from shaving foam is now composted before being used in the production of turf, meaning it now has a commercial beneficial reuse. - A particular issue was the complexity of treating more than 400 880mm x 610mm large fibreboard drums each month. As the drums were too big to transport and process, Veolia sourced a specialist drum crushing machine to create a manageable sized drum that could be sent for energy recovery. ***The Result:*** - P&G’s Reading manufacturing facility achieved zero waste to landfill during 2011. Veolia supported this achievement with an innovative service that considered all waste streams and investigated many environmentally friendly alternatives. This resulted in P&G achieving its beneficial reuse rate of 100%.