Maintenance Executives Take Out the Trash
At a technical session here on March 1, members of the Technology & Maintenance Council swapped stories on their quests for zero landfill waste. The study group meeting was part of TMC's annual meeting.
Executives from UPS Inc. and FedEx Express offered examples, as did the private fleet of PepsiCo, tire maker Firestone and DEX Heavy Duty Parts.
Roland Bailey of Pepsi said the process includes a cultural change of altering “the mindsets of people in the shop.” Anything that can be recycled is recyled, he said, and advised that zero might not really be attainable, but the effort is still worthwhile.
He recycles waste oil and tries to use less of it by extending change intervals, he said.
Firestone’s Debora Hamlin said her shops recycle used tires, sometimes turning them into mulch or a road-building product such as asphalt. She also changed the tire weights used in the shops to steel from lead.
Marc Clark spoke in his role as chairman of the study group rather than an emissary from FedEx. He and UPS’ Duane Lippincott, the moderator, said efforts to create less waste are important — and might sometimes make money — but the work should not be undertaken as a major profit center.
“Personally,” said Clark, a former TMC chairman, “We have an opportunity to do what is right. . . . Like building any good thing, you need to develop a plan and then execute it.”
Lippincott said “the overall goal of this is to make it a better environment for those who come after us. . . . As a society we need to change how we think.”
