Boating Industry Canada
A zero-waste-to-landfill designation has been achieved by Mercury Marine's Plant 7 manufacturing operation in St. Cloud, Florida. The fourth Mercury facility to achieve this designation, Plant 7 makes electrical and plastic components for the company’s marine engines and related parts, accessories and technologies.
Plant 7's three predecessors are all distribution centers: one at the Mercury world headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; another in Old Lyme, Connecticut, as part of the Land ‘N’ Sea subsidiary’s operations; and another at the Mercury European headquarters in Petit-Rechain, Belgium.
The St. Cloud operation has the distinction of being the company’s first manufacturing plant to earn the zero-waste-to-landfill label and the first facility to employ waste-to-energy methodology to help achieve this sustainability benchmark.
According to Bob Rock, materials manager at the St. Cloud facility, one of these creative solutions involves converting waste into a source of energy.
For ongoing compliance with the required standards, Mercury has empowered teams at each of its zero-waste-to-landfill locations to develop sound methodology for ongoing monitoring. The teams regularly measure their respective plants’ waste-stream materials generated from operations and the amount of those materials moved into the proper processes of reuse and recycling.