Waste Re-Use

Garbage into Good

Every consumer goods company generates some material that cannot be used or sold. At P&G, that material ranges from shampoo wash-out and wood pulp to outdated mascara. But through our Global Asset Recovery Purchases Program (GARP), we keep such materials from disposal by devising creative alternative uses.

Much more than recycling, GARP (Global Asset Recovery Purchases) turns “garbage into good.” Where most of these materials would be considered waste elsewhere in our industry, destined either for landfill or incineration, they are used and often sold for re-use, reducing raw material consumption by other companies.

Our GARP team is charged with finding external partners who can turn waste and non-performing inventory into something useful. So when a P&G site has something they haven’t been able to recycle, GARP steps in to help. In the past year alone, this small group of garbage gurus has diverted tens of thousands of tons from landfills, and has delivered tens of millions of dollars in cost recovery to the company by selling or donating materials to others who can reuse the materials.

At P&G, over 96% of all material that comes in goes out as finished product—the GARP team works hard to find a good home for the rest.

Committed to Reducing Manufacturing Waste

Transforming waste into alternative products. To reduce waste at our manufacturing plants and distribution centers, P&G employs a dedicated global team of experts. The GARP team (Global Asset Recovery Purchases) has expertise in creating value from waste:

  • Excess floss is repurposed in Mexico as the filling in pillows that are used to clean up industrial spills.
  • In India, scrap pads are recycled into plastic soles to make low-cost shoes.
  • In Thailand and China, the waste left over from the hair care manufacturing process is combined with clay and coal ash, then heated to make bricks.

When a P&G facility has something it cannot recycle, GARP steps in to help. Thanks to them, many materials that were once destined for a landfill or incineration are being put to good use—or sold for re-use, reducing the virgin materials that other companies require.

To date, 16 P&G plants and distribution centers have achieved zero manufacturing waste sent to landfill. This means that 100% of their manufacturing waste is beneficially re-used and diverted from landfills.

“We start be simply focusing on optimizing the recycling of conventional materials such as cardboard, plastics and metals. While this seems easy, we must make sure we create processes that enable our employees to sort everything efficiently and avoid contamination of these different materials. Then we bring in our Alternative Use team to help identify solutions for other scrap materials that have value in specific niche markets, such as wastewater and sludges. In some countries we can use sludges as an ingredient in the manufacture of bricks and in others we can use them as soil enhancers. I know that the work we are doing within the GARP team is delivering significant environmental benefits to all of our sites and the communities in which they operate.”