How do you turn manufacturing
sludge into a sustainable building material? Toyota Motor Manufacturing,
Indiana (TMMI) offers a “concrete” example.
Before 2010, water used in the manufacturing
process was pumped into the plant’s wastewater treatment system. It was
cleaned and treated with a chemical — ferric sulfate— to remove metals and
contaminants. The result was a useless iron-rich sludge left behind as waste…a
LOT of waste. Sludge was nearly 70 percent of TMMI’s total waste stream each
month.
Enter Toyota’s ongoing commitment to
eco-efficient operations. To minimize waste and conserve natural resources,
TMMI tested different additives in order to find a more natural way to treat
the sludge from TMMI’s wastewater streams and the paint shop. Lime slurry,
a non-hazardous mineral and more
cost-effective alternative, performed the best. It reduced wastewater sludge by
4
pounds per
vehicle, the equivalent of eliminating over 1 million pounds of wastewater
sludge each year.
And, it turns out, the calcium-rich sludge left
behind is a great replacement for cement in cement kilns. The sludge is dried,
compressed and shipped to a facility where it is used to make Portland cement,
a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar and stucco.
By developing innovative methods like this, TMMI
became a zero waste to landfill facility
in 2010 and continues to
operate as such today.
Learn more about Toyota’s environmental
initiatives in the company’s latest environmental report: www.toyota.com/about/environmentreport2013/
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