Operations

Reducing the environmental impact of our operations means engaging our entire organization in making changes big and small throughout our manufacturing, distribution, and office facilities.

And to provide the focus and motivation to do so, we have set new footprint reduction goals. For each case of product sold, we will reduce GHG emissions, energy use, and water use by 10 percent, and solid waste by 20 percent, all by 2013.

Solid Waste

Clorox is a light manufacturer that produces a modest amount of solid waste, the vast majority of which is non-hazardous in nature. Nonetheless, we are committed to minimizing the amount of waste produced at our facilities worldwide. While minimizing waste reduces our costs, it’s also better for the environment.

Solid Waste Goal

At Clorox, we’ve set a goal to reduce our company-wide solid waste to landfill by 20% per case of product sold from 2007 to 2013. Halfway through this goal period, we achieved a 15% reduction in our solid waste to landfill, and we plan to accelerate our efforts in waste reduction so that we can beat the goals we initially set.

We plan to meet and even exceed our goals by continuing to reduce the amount of waste we generate, by finding more ways to reuse our waste, and by expanding our recycling and composting efforts.

During the past three years, our employees at seven of our facilities conducted “dumpster dives”–literally digging through our trash to see if we could reduce waste–and ultimately found ways to reduce our solid waste at all of these facilities by more than half.

Progress to Date

Zero-Waste to Landfill Pilot program

In 2010, all three Burt’s Bees^® facilities became the first zero waste-to-landfill sites in the Clorox network. Two other Clorox facilities have now stepped up and committed to a zero waste-to-landfill goal and the initiatives necessary to get there. In order to get to zero waste-to-landfill, these facilities will have to:

Reduce, reuse, recycle, or compost at least 90% of the waste streams in the site,
Not allow any common recycled items such as paper, plastic, corrugate and aluminum to be in the remaining waste, and
Send the remaining 10% or less of waste to a waste-to-energy facility.

The goal is to achieve these designations by our centennial year, 2013, consistent with our other environmental sustainability goals. As our waste reduction efforts are expanded, we expect other facilities to join with these eco leader sites.

Recycling Programs

For the last several years our Fairfield, California plant recycled like most other plants. Recyclable materials were collected in various ways throughout the plant and sent off to different companies to recycle them. In January 2011, the plant partnered with a third party vendor to implement an innovative recycling program. The team identified additional recyclable materials and strategically placed recycling containers to allow easy access for employees. As of April 2011, the Fairfield plant has recycled more than 266 tons of recyclable materials. In addition, 65% of the cardboard collected is now being reused instead of just being recycled.

In 2010, our cat litter plant in Spring Hill, Kansas was one of our largest waste-to-landfill contributors. This was due primarily to the plant’s inability to effectively segregate and screen contaminated clay from reclaimable clay. A project was chartered to reduce waste to landfill by 70%, which included developing and implementing a process to collect contaminated clay in separate containers. Since its February 2011 start, the plant has already reduced waste to the landfill by approximately 70%, and the plant is confident that they can deliver even more waste-to-landfill reductions in the future.

Several other facilities have also yielded solid waste-to-landfill reductions. Most are well over 50%, with some greater than 85%. There are also many other waste reduction activities going on in Rogers (Arkansas), Santiago (Chile), San Jose (Costa Rica) and throughout our company worldwide. We now plan to expand these programs throughout the Clorox network.

Hazardous Waste

Clorox produces a very modest amount of hazardous waste. Nonetheless, we are committed to minimizing hazardous waste from our facilities. We also ensure that any waste that is generated is properly handled by approved vendors and properly tracked throughout the handling process. We employ manufacturing practices that improve the efficiency of our processes and minimize the need for hazardous waste.

Waste Water

We’re committed to minimizing waste water from our facilities. We employ manufacturing practices that improve the efficiency of our processes and minimize the need for waste water. Reducing waste water not only reduces costs. It’s also better for the environment.

Earth Day

On Earth Day (2011), employee volunteer Eco Network teams located at more than 20 sites focused on the three R’s of waste reduction: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Events included educational programs focused on the three R’s; an e-waste recycling drive and a reduced-litter employee lunch event. In Oakland and Pleasanton, California, several hundred employees participated in hands-on activities that focused on the three R's. Some donated coats and sweaters to support One Warm Coat, (a non-profit entity that distributes warm clothing to people in need), others shared surplus office supplies and signed up to turn in their personal office printers, and many shared ideas for reducing the use of disposable food and beverage containers.