Caterpillar's Pledge to Minimize Waste

Improving the efficiency of our products, processes, services and solutions not only reduces costs, but also reduces our utilization of materials, energy, water and land. Beginning in 2013, we transitioned from a focus on percent recycled to a goal focused on reduction of all by-product materials, or minimization of waste.

In accordance with our waste minimization goal, we are using fewer materials wherever we can. Some of these projects include the paint process at our Xuzhou, China, and Japan excavator facilities. By eliminating the application of atop coat of paint – the benefits of which did not outweigh the costs and waste of providing it – the process will save Caterpillar an estimated $3.8 million per year while eliminating the use of tens of thousands of liters of paint – about 40 percent of which was wasted as overspray.

Read more examples here.