Zero waste handwritten text with green recycling sign isolated on white background. Zero landfill concept illustration in cartoon style.

Aware of the importance of protecting and preserving the environment, SC Johnson continues to work globally to create a more sustainable world by reducing its environmental impact as well as inspiring families, communities, and organizations to join efforts to have a waste-free world through multiple approaches that include recycling and reusing waste from its manufacturing processes. These actions have enabled the company’s manufacturing plant in Toluca to achieve its Zero Waste goal for five consecutive years since all waste is treated for a new life preventing it from reaching landfills. Specifically, during the last lustrum, the plant avoided sending more than 430 tons of waste to landfill.

“We are proud the Toluca plant is on track to meet our global goals and create a more sustainable world along the way,” says Alan VanderMolen, senior vice president and chief communications officer for SC Johnson. “At SC Johnson, we believe that by promoting actions that help us reduce our waste, our energy and water consumption, as well as our carbon emissions, we can accelerate the transition towards a circular economy and generate a lasting change.”

Within the SC Johnson facilities in Toluca, State of Mexico, 60 percent of waste materials such as paper, cardboard, metal, and plastic are being currently recycled, 35 percent are reused and  percent of them are sent for energy recovery with strategic partners of the company, a process that uses waste as fuel for the cement industry. Hence, the company ensures that none of the waste derived from its manufacturing processes reaches landfills. In addition, by 2025 they have the objective of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent, compared to 2020.

Some of the company's most remarkable efforts on sustainability issue on this site are:

1. Resource management

  • Recycling and circularity: Every month, up to 80,000 kilograms of SC Johnsons’ containers and packaging products produced at the plant that do not meet the company’s quality standards are recycled and transformed into new materials or reintegrated into the production process.
  • Water treatment: At the SC Johnson site in Toluca, there is a water treatment plant that treats wastewater from the toilets and from the chemical processes of the products. Subsequently, this water is used to irrigate the green areas of the facilities. Thus, each month approximately up to 1.4 million liters are treated. It is also worth noting that by 2023, these facilities will reduce the water used from both wells and industrial parks by 30 percent compared to 2020.

 

2. Alternative energies

The company is also concerned with the use of clean energy; therefore, 65 percent of the electricity used within the facilities comes from wind sources. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the plant has solar panels that provide hot water to the bathrooms as well as energy to the dining rooms.

3. Education and empowerment of communities

SC Johnson shares with its collaborators and their families information ranging from plastic recycling to at-home-farming practices. Before the pandemic, workshops were held in the greenhouses that the company built specifically for promoting the harvest of its own food and plant care. With these activities, which are yet to return to Toluca’s agenda, SC Johnson seeks to inspire the community to join in the action.