Think it’s impossible to assemble a car and have no materials end up in a landfill? Think again. Originally built in 1989, the Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA) plant in Lafayette, Ind., has proven that it cannot only drastically reduce the amount of material that finds its way to a landfill, but it has virtually eliminated it.

A pioneer in the area of environmental stewardship, Subaru set specific environmental targets each and every year. The initiative to achieve zero landfill began in 2002 and was projected to be achieved in 2007. In order to achieve this goal, Subaru began by sorting through its trash to determine what kind and how much waste it was sending to a landfill. Initial recycling projects started with the obvious, such as recycling aluminum cans, scrap steel, cardboard and plastic bottles. Believe it or not, many of the best recycling ideas came from Subaru employees working on the production line. They came up with ideas for reducing and reusing materials that had some of the biggest impacts on recycling efforts and ultimately led to drastic cost reductions for the company. ...

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