THE QUEST FOR A QUALITY ENVIRONMENT

Procter & Gamble believes that maintaining leadership positions in its product categories depends to a great extent on its ability to make waste management a Quality issue.
By E.J. Muller, Senior Editor
rocter & Gamble, one of the worlds largest producers of consumer goods, believes there is a direct connection between Quality and environmental issues. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company has for many years used formal quality processes in its operations. It recently adapted many of these same principles to the critical, but often neglected, area of solid waste management. Like Quality, tackling waste management in a huge conglomerate like

P&G requires a top-down approach. Thats why the company has created an Environmental Quality Policy, along the lines of the Quality-based Mission Statement thats typically used to galvanize workers. In fact, P&G Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edwin Artzt has called environmental issues P&Gs greatest global challenge. He maintains that Its more than just the right thing to do, its essential if we are to continue to maintain the leadership positions we enjoy in our product categories,

P&Gs first step was to track the waste generated at each interface.

We must anticipate and address environmental issues from the moment we conceive a product all the way through its development, testing, manufacture, marketing and sales, right up to the final moment when a satisfied customer disposes of an empty container. Achieving that goal requires the application of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles to all functional areas which have an impact on the environment. The foundation of TQM is the continuous improvement cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), which forms the basis for all of P&Gswaste management systems and programs in the companys many plants and divisions. A big part of the process is tracking the amount of waste generated at a given site; just like a Quality process, it is impossible to manage that which isnt measured. From these measurements, goals can be set, based on corporate-wide comparison of data. A sites operating process, be it manufacturing or distribution, can then be analyzed to uncover more efficient means of waste elimination. Integrated Approach i s Essential In the front-end stage of operations, one of the most valuable things P&G does is a Lifecycle Assessment. Before it introduces a new product, a Lifecycle Assessment is done to determine the amount of energy and

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Product redesign has reduced packaging and saved millions.

which is as follows: 1) source reduction; 2) recycle, reuse and compost; 3) incinerate (generating steam or electrical energy if possible); and 4 ) landfill (only when all else fails). Source reduction, quite simply, means using less material in the manufacturing of a product and its packaging. Using recyclable materials in the manufacturing of packages is also an important step toward closing the waste loop, Eller notes. P&G, for example, makes many of its plastic containers in tri-layered fashion, with the widest center layer made from recycled resins, coated on either side by virgin plastic.
Design Affects Distribution Rethinking product design to eliminate waste has an immediate affect on transportation and distribution. This has been proven most dramatically in P&Gs detergent products. Our Ultra detergents a r e concentrated, which results in as much as 50 percent less packaging, says Eller. In the US.that has meant 9,000 fewer truckloads per year, and about controlling waste, there is also a reduction of about 900,000 gallons a tremendous amount of misinfor- of fuel each year. That also means mation flying around about how the saving 2,000 tires, which are a major problem can be controlled. The key waste item in landfills. P&G analysts is an integrated system that address- estimate that the company has saved es the whole waste stream, s h e about $16.5 million annually in direct product and transportation costs maintains. The company subscribes to the with the Ultra product line. Through the use of its Total EnviEnvironmental Protection Agencys priority list for waste management, continued

waste the product will incur at every stage of the supply chain, from material sourcing through manufacturing, distribution, customer use and disposal. Karen Eller, P&Gs environmental coordinator, stresses that there is no cure-all technique for tackling environmental concerns. She notes that while theres more talk then ever
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ronmental Quality Initiative, a num- lets from Chep USA, Eller says, as week may be outmoded today. 4. Think integrated waste manageber of P&G locations have scored part of a total quality initiative, but major environmental successes. t h e environmental payoffs have ment. The best approach is to create These include: proved very significant.Using Cheps an infrastructure that incorporates A plant in Mehoopany, Pa., pallet-pool system, in which the many different waste control techwhich has developed a waste dewa- third-party provider owns and main- niques. No one alternative will solve tering and drying process that turns tains the pallets, P&G estimates that the problem. 5. Seek out public and private partsurplus papermaking fibers into pel- its kept as many as 70 million pallets letized boiler fuel. This has cut solid out of landfills. Eller notes that the nerships. There must be either an waste destined for landfill by 75 per- company is considering experiment- end user or a profit-based middleing with recycled plastic pallets, as man for most recycled, reused or cent. Removal or closure of 209 po- well. composted material. You must seek She suggests that logistics profes- out these people and deal with them tentially hazardous underground storage tanks across the U.S. sionals, or anyone for that matter, in a business-like manner. Only then A plant in Lima, Ohio, now recy- can benefit from a basic environ- will waste management stop being a voluntary altruistic pursuit and becles 1,200 tons of corrugated card- mental agenda: 1. Establish an environmental poli- come a matter of good business board and plastic annually. A plant in Germany now recycles cy. Dont be vague; be specific about sense. 6. Use the EPA priority list as a 50 percent of its waste to use as fuel. goals. A Quincy, Mass., plant installed 2. Organize for the task. Determine guideline. Its important that people realize ultrafiltration on its wastewater dis- what areas of operation are most vulcharge system. The more than 800 nerable. Make sure that the tasks are that solid waste is everybodys probtons of reclaimed fat can be used in shared between staff and line work- lem, says Karen Eller. Once you establish that mind-set its not an uphill ers. animal feed. More than 80 percent of P&Gs 3. Stay current on environmental is- struggle. Its also not some high-tech paperboard packaging is made from sues. Everyone is still feeling their issue. It just requires a systemic, interecycled materials, and the percent- way through the learning stages, and grated approach and a commitment age continues to rise, the company what was an optimum solution last from people to make it work. maintains. Composting, in which garbage is tumed into humus for farms and gar- P&Gs tri-layer container design uses far less virgin plastic. dens, is also an area in which P&G is taking a leadership role. The company has invested $20 million into promoting this waste reuse strategy in municipalities. Any type of organic materials can be mulched into compost, and P&G believes that if cities established collection methods for this type of trash, in addition to bottles, cans a n d newspapers, t h e amount of landfill generated in the country could be reduced much further. The company has been working with commercial composing firms here and abroad to prove that disposable diapers can be composted along with other household trash. Closing the Pallet Loop The company has also been an early supporter of the Chep reusable pallet system, which Eller considers the essence of the closed loop system. P&G first started leasing pal-

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