Turning bottles into car parts

Recycling water bottles is one thing. General Motors Co. says it's taking the next step by funneling bottles from five of its facilities into engine insulation, air filters for the factory floor and coats for the homeless.

In a news release from GM in advance of Earth Day on April 22, GM said all of its global facilities recycling water bottles, but the “Do Your Part” project at five locations tries to look at those bottles beyond the recycling bin.

“Recycling is good, but viewing waste as a valuable resource that can be plugged into your operations or products is even better,” said John Bradburn, GM global manager of waste reduction. “It's about rethinking the process and finding more sustainable ways to manufacturing products and contribute to our communities.”

Hamtramck Recycling in Hamtramck, Mich., bales the bottles collected from the five sites, all in Michigan — GM's world headquarters in Detroit, it's Warren technical center, an assembly plant in Lake Orion and two facilities in Flint — and Unifi Inc., recycles the PET flake into resin.

Palmetto Synthetics LLC of Kingstree, S.C., processes the resin into fibers while William T. Burnett & Co. of Baltimore, process the fibers into fleece used in three projects:

• Rogers Foam Corp. die cuts fleece and attaches into the nylon cover for the Chevrolet Equinox V6 engine, to help dampen engine noise.

• Filtration Services Group works with New Life Center, a nonprofit jobs development and training mission in Flint, to make the panels for an air filtration fleece, which is used at 10 GM facilities to improve air quality.

• Carhartt, the workwear company founded in Detroit, cuts the fleece into coat insulation that is used by The Empowerment Plan to make coats for the homeless than can double as sleeping bags.

GM also is working with various organization including Schupan Recycling, part of Schupan & Sons Inc. of East Lansing, Mich., to collect water bottles from Flint, Mich., to add to the project. Flint residents have been forced to drink bottled and filtered water because of lead leaching into their water lines.