The best way to cut landfill waste is to eliminate using what ends up as waste – excess packaging, for example. The second-best way is to find another use for it.
Southwire recently launched its first company-wide recycling effort. This initiative works on several levels.


RAISING AWARENESS We created Southwire Office Waste Reduction Committee to raise employee awareness about our recycling program and other waste reduction strategies.


DON'T JUST THROW IT AWAY Southwire distributed special blue containers to all office areas for recycling paper products, aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Large bins were placed in parking lots, giving employees places to recycle the stuff that tends to accumulate in their cars.


BRING YOUR GARBAGE TO WORK... AND TAKE THE ISSUE HOME We encourage employees to bring certain materials from home and put them into our recycling bins. Because recycling is a way of life, we urge everyone to recycle at home as well as at work.


ELECTRONIC RECYCLING Twice each year, Southwire partners with Keep Carroll Beautiful to stage electronics-recycling events. At one recent drive, volunteers collected more than 25,000 pounds of old computers, televisions, cell phones, copiers and other electronics items.
 

TOXICS RELEASE INVENTORY
Each year the EPA requires companies to report their emissions of more than 600 chemicals to air, water and land – if the emissions exceed specified threshold levels. The agency publishes the data in an annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report.


Southwire substantially reduced its TRI numbers when it closed CDS. Now, we rely on others to refine the copper we use to make wire and cable. Our goal is to reduce emissions from existing operations – not by outsourcing the pollution. In that respect, we have work to do.


Southwire’s total releases of TRI substances actually increased significantly from 2005 to 2006. But the 2006 total was still below the one-million-pound mark for the fourth consecutive year and well below the approximately 10 million pounds we reported in 1999, the last full year of our smelter operation.

More than 90 percent of the overall jump in TRI reportable substances came in the form of solid waste either managed on site or transported to a landfill. Several factors contributed to that increase:
• We boosted our production of wire and cable throughout the company. It’s hard to step up production without increasing waste.
• Copper byproducts normally recycled by our Watkinsville, Georgia plant were sent to a landfill because the materials processor previously used
by Southwire closed. We’re looking for another appropriate facility.
• Our copper rod mill in Carrollton conducted a full system shutdown and cleanout in 2006, resulting in higher-than-normal shipments of copper wastes to landfills. This procedure does not take place every year.


While solid TRI wastes increased in 2006, our TRI releases into the air dropped by nearly 10 percent.


There’s room for improvement and Southwire is making some changes that will help. Especially important is our commitment to eliminate lead from our raw materials and products. Except for copper byproducts, lead compounds are currently Southwire’s biggest TRI component. The lead numbers should drop significantly in the next year or  so.

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Taking Out the Trash

The best way to cut landfill waste is to eliminate using what ends up as waste – excess packaging, for example. The second-best way is to find another use for it.
Southwire recently launched its first company-wide recycling effort. This initiative works on several levels.


RAISING AWARENESS We created Southwire Office Waste Reduction Committee to raise employee awareness about our recycling program and other waste reduction strategies.


DON'T JUST THROW IT AWAY Southwire distributed special blue containers to all office areas for recycling paper products, aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Large bins were placed in parking lots, giving employees places to recycle the stuff that tends to accumulate in their cars.


BRING YOUR GARBAGE TO WORK... AND TAKE THE ISSUE HOME We encourage employees to bring certain materials from home and put them into our recycling bins. Because recycling is a way of life, we urge everyone to recycle at home as well as at work.


ELECTRONIC RECYCLING Twice each year, Southwire partners with Keep Carroll Beautiful to stage electronics-recycling events. At one recent drive, volunteers collected more than 25,000 pounds of old computers, televisions, cell phones, copiers and other electronics items.
 

TOXICS RELEASE INVENTORY
Each year the EPA requires companies to report their emissions of more than 600 chemicals to air, water and land – if the emissions exceed specified threshold levels. The agency publishes the data in an annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report.


Southwire substantially reduced its TRI numbers when it closed CDS. Now, we rely on others to refine the copper we use to make wire and cable. Our goal is to reduce emissions from existing operations – not by outsourcing the pollution. In that respect, we have work to do.


Southwire’s total releases of TRI substances actually increased significantly from 2005 to 2006. But the 2006 total was still below the one-million-pound mark for the fourth consecutive year and well below the approximately 10 million pounds we reported in 1999, the last full year of our smelter operation.

More than 90 percent of the overall jump in TRI reportable substances came in the form of solid waste either managed on site or transported to a landfill. Several factors contributed to that increase:
• We boosted our production of wire and cable throughout the company. It’s hard to step up production without increasing waste.
• Copper byproducts normally recycled by our Watkinsville, Georgia plant were sent to a landfill because the materials processor previously used
by Southwire closed. We’re looking for another appropriate facility.
• Our copper rod mill in Carrollton conducted a full system shutdown and cleanout in 2006, resulting in higher-than-normal shipments of copper wastes to landfills. This procedure does not take place every year.


While solid TRI wastes increased in 2006, our TRI releases into the air dropped by nearly 10 percent.


There’s room for improvement and Southwire is making some changes that will help. Especially important is our commitment to eliminate lead from our raw materials and products. Except for copper byproducts, lead compounds are currently Southwire’s biggest TRI component. The lead numbers should drop significantly in the next year or  so.