Caterpillar Reaches 100% -- Twice

100% recycling that is, at two of its factories in the UK -- The Caterpillar Remanufacturing & Components Division United Kingdom Hose Assembly (UKHA) plant in Leicester, England and the Caterpillar Logistics Services (Cat Logistics) in Desford, England.

In 2008 the Desford facility set a goal to be landfill free and it met that goal in October of this year.

Here's how they did it:

Segregation of waste has increased considerably from an original six different streams to more than 30 today and so increasing recycling opportunities.

Many of the waste streams are now baled/bundled. Baling waste has many advantages including increased weight per volume and reduced transportation costs. The baling has reduced transportation involved by 50% when moving waste off site.

The best example is shipping cardboard, which was previously only two tons per vehicle, and baling has increased loads to 22 tons per vehicle - an 11-fold improvement.

Office waste was originally all collected in a single bin and sent to landfill. The introduction of smaller desktop bins has encouraged everyone to generate less waste, and
segregated collection points has ensured all material is recycled.

This facility saved $183,984 cost saving was realized in the first year following implementation of the new processes.


The UKHA facility achieved zero landfill by effectively increasing the facility's recycling rate by an additional 25% -30% from previous years.

Project results include:

A total waste management system was developed to maximize revenues generated from recyclables and to start recycling waste rubber hydraulic hoses.

A system was created to ensure UKHA reaches and maintains 100% facility recycling.

The environmental metrics reporting procedure was simplified and streamlined.

Savings of $15,562 have been realized since the implementation of the project in September 2009.