Waste

The more efficient we are in using materials to make our products, the less waste we produce, the fewer resources we consume and the more money we save. That is why we first work toward absolute material utilization throughout our manufacturing processes followed by eliminating, minimizing, reusing and recycling the waste materials we do produce.
 
We employ waste mapping to track waste streams back to their sources in our facilities worldwide. Using lean manufacturing methodologies, each facility eliminates or minimizes the identified wastes one source at a time, typically starting with the highest-volume or highest-cost waste stream identified through the mapping process. We explore reuse and recycling options for wastes that remain.

Our Resource Management Subcommittee of our Sustainability Committee is helping us move beyond manufacturing to other areas in the company, such as product formulation and raw materials management, where waste can be eliminated or minimized.

We are measuring our performance against two goals:

• A 25% reduction in total waste disposal intensity by 2025 from a 2017 baseline.
• Achieve zero landfill status from process waste at 35% of PPG manufacturing and research and development (R&D) locations by 2025. 

Our 2019 total waste disposal intensity was 2.51 metric tons of waste produced per 100 metric tons of production, which was a 25.1% decline from the 2017 baseline. This performance achieved our 2025 goal six years ahead of schedule. We plan to reevaluate the goal in 2020.

The biggest contributor to the goal’s early achievement was the government changing the classification of the silica byproduct at our Lake Charles facility in the U.S. from waste to non-waste. This reclassification was due to our finding a beneficial use for the material. In 2019, we diverted 32,000 metric tons of silica from the landfill and saved US$760,000 in disposal and transportation cost.

Globally, we disposed of 98,400 metric tons of waste in 2019, which was a 26.7% reduction from prior year. Of our manufacturing and R&D locations, 32.8% had zero landfilled process waste.

In 2019, we appointed regional waste coordinators in the majority of our regions to work with their top waste-producing sites through workshops and the development of location-specific waste minimization plans.

In addition to focusing on our top waste-producing sites, we are cultivating a culture of waste minimization throughout the entire organization using a life-cycle approach. We also share the good practices of our top-performing sites with all locations.

In 2019, for example, our Coatings Innovation Center in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, launched an employee-driven program that encouraged the recycling of everyday items such as plasticware, soda cans, cardboard and paper. By simply placing recycling bins for mixed materials around the site, employees diverted 26.4 metric tons of waste from the landfill between June and December. The program is serving as a model for other PPG sites.

Remediation

Some of our past waste-disposal methods, which were legal and accepted industry practices in their time, can require environmental remediation or land reclamation to meet today’s regulations, our stringent internal standards or stakeholder expectations.

We use a life cycle approach to assess and manage environmental issues and impacts at all of our facilities. A site assessment, which we require at various stages in a facility’s life cycle, provides an environmental evaluation according to standard industry practices. The assessment determines what, if any, remediation activities or restrictions will be implemented to meet our ultimate goal—each facility is in a condition in which it can be reused safely and productively.

Read about specific remediation projects in our 2019 annual report.

Spills and Releases

Our facilities have strong management practices in place to prevent spills and releases, and our corporate spill-elimination standard requires the establishment of a spill-elimination program at each facility.

The program consists of the following steps:

• Assessment of a facility’s spill elimination performance;
• Improvement plans based on prioritized assessment of risk;
• Corrective action plan with defined dates; and
• Completion of planned action.

An effective tool used by our locations is spill-elimination workshops. During these events, employees from various functions use a rapid improvement process and checklist to assess their facilities to identify areas for immediate improvement, as well as opportunities for longer-term action planning.

Our thresholds for reporting a spill are stringent, allowing us to identify issues before they become significant. These thresholds vary by material and government-reportable levels, with the lowest threshold at 11 pounds (5 kilograms). Our internal reporting requirements also include spills that are fully captured by secondary containment and recovered with no environmental impact. Risks associated with spills and releases having off-site environmental impact include clean-up costs, future liabilities and reputational risks. 

Our median spill in 2019 was 44 pounds (20 kilograms), with 99.2% of spills contained onsite. We had three significant spills during the year that totaled 2,242 gallons (8,487 liters). One of these spills was confined to secondary containment, and a second was contained onsite. The third spill, which consisted of firefighting foam, reached the offsite environment and was reported to the state government.

Our goal is at least a 65% improvement in our spills and releases rate by 2025 from a 2017 baseline. Our 2019 rate of 1.25 spills and releases per 1,000 employees was 32.1% lower than the baseline.

Our top three causes of spills are the movement of containers, transfer of liquids from one tank to another and equipment failure. To close these gaps, we:

• Conduct employee training;
• Have stringent requirements for forklifts and their corporate auditing; and
• Require each location to have an active preventative maintenance program in place.

Our Walk the Line initiative requires operators to walk the production line prior to transferring a liquid from one point to another. This visual check helps identify potential causes of spills, such as pumping liquid to a wrong tank or one that is already full or having a drain valve open somewhere in the system. Each location must conduct a self-assessment of its spill elimination program annually.