Widget Manufacturing Co. is a model business for waste reduction. Plant managers, Tyrone Jones and Rosy Littlefeather, give bonuses to Widget workers who come up with new ways to reduce, reuse, or recycle. By reducing waste, the company helps the environment and saves money, too.
You might be wondering what a widget is. It's hard to describe, but it's really important—kinda like a doodad. Now that you know, grab a hard hat and come inside to find out more...
Recycled
metal
Because metal is a non-renewable resource (when it's gone, it's gone), Rosy makes sure Widget Manufacturing buys recycled metal to produce its widgets. She buys it from the company that recycles metal items for the Recycle City Materials Recovery Facility. She also uses scrap metal that Joe's Auto Wreckers helped collect.
Washing
widgets
In trying to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals Widget Manufacturing uses, Tyrone found a safer substitute for the harmful cleanser used to clean off newly manufactured widgets. Now, Tyrone uses cleansers with ingredients like lemon juice and vinegar to do the same thing (they are naturally acidic). The new cleansers do the job as well as the old toxic chemicals, but they don't harm the environment.
Packing
widgets
When Rosy's crew packs widgets for shipping, they use a popcorn-like packing material made from corn starch. In the old days, they used peanuts made from plastic foam, but many people just threw them away (instead of reusing them) and contributed to filling up the local landfill areas. Because the new material is made from corn starch, it can be dissolved in water when it's no longer needed. (Real popcorn can be used as packing material, too, but hold the butter.)
Reduced
packaging
Tyrone and a team of Widget workers experimented with several ways to reduce the packaging used to ship widgets.
Corrugated boxes are a major source of waste in industry. Willie, one of the Widget workers, found that boxes returned from customers could be reused and repackaged up to five times before recycling them. Now, Widget Manufacturing offers to pay for shipping if its customers return the packaging. So far, Willie's idea has saved the company $95,000.
With the combined efforts of Widget plants across the country, Widget workers saved 2.9 million pounds of wood by collecting wooden shipping pallets. Then, they either returned pallets to suppliers, sold them, or repaired broken pallets so they could be used again.
Fixing
widgets
Rosy and Tyrone set up a widget repair station for fixing broken or worn-down widgets. Now, customers bring in worn widgets for replacement parts and leave with a widget that's good as new. Widget fixing not only saves energy and resources by extending the life of a widget, it also keeps customers happy.
Smokestack
scrubbers
Laws designed to protect public health and the environment require factories, such as Widget Manufacturing Co., to reduce their contribution to air pollution as much as possible by using the latest technology. Widget workers installed scrubbers inside the smokestack to catch any harmful exhaust that could escape into the air. Now, everyone in Recycle City breathes a little easier.
Carpooling
Widget Manufacturing Co. encourages its employees to share rides to work and has set up special parking areas close to the building for those who do. The factory office has a bulletin board so workers can find the available carpools, locations, and times of departure.
In two weeks, if 100 Widget workers, who normally drive 20 miles to work alone, commute in pairs, they save:
- 10,000 miles of travel
- 75 pounds of hydrocarbons
- 30 pounds of nitrogen oxides
- 550 pounds of carbon monoxide
- 9,900 pounds of carbon dioxide
- 500 gallons of gasoline
Many Widget workers get to work by taking public transportation, such as buses or trains. Using public transportation saves energy, cuts down on air pollution, and helps reduce traffic jams. To encourage employees to use mass transit systems, Widget Manufacturing Co. offers workers a credit each month that they can use to pay for bus or train tickets.
