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Hitachi Auto WRAPs up Award for Reducing Waste

Hitachi Automotive Products has been honored by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, which named the company WRAP of the Year for 2003, part of the state’s Waste Reduction Awards Program.

Hitachi Automotive Products has been honored by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, which named the company WRAP of the Year for 2003, part of the state’s Waste Reduction Awards program.

A first-time WRAP award winner, Hitachi Automotive Products rebuilds and remanufactures automotive parts such as alternators, distributors, engine control units, mass airflow sensors, and starters. As an ISO-14001-certified company with 135 employees, Hitachi's Torrance operation strives for continuous improvement in its environmental management systems.

Hitachi’s plant has diverted more than 2.4 million pounds of metals and plastics from local landfills, saving the company an estimated $1.2 million in operating costs. One source of savings came from taking advantage of used "cores" instead of new products for their remanufacturing processes. Each reused core keeps approximately 4 to 16 pounds of aluminum, steel, copper, lead, and plastic out of landfills.

Many Hitachi facilities around the world promote a zero-waste goal. Last year, for example, the Torrance Hitachi plant donated two compressors to the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity organization and held drawings to provide employees with opportunities to purchase surplus company furniture at minimal cost. An in-house environmental management team continually reviews and explores resource conservation alternatives.

The team also promotes reusable coffee mugs and other efforts to reduce reliance upon disposable products, as well as e-mail, computer, faxing, and recycled notepads to cut down on paper waste. The plant recycles all electronic waste (computers, printers, copiers, and more) through certified e-waste recyclers and uses a high percentage of recycled-content packing materials for its own shipping and handling activities.

For more information on Hitachi's global environmental initiatives, visit greenweb.hitachi.co.jp/en.

Now in its 11th year, the Waste Reduction Awards Program is open to private industry and nonprofit organizations throughout California and provides recognition for exemplary and model business practices to reduce waste, recycle, reuse materials, and send less to landfills. In particular, the WRAP of the Year designation honors companies of all sizes for successful waste reduction practices in the workplace.

The award is a special distinction made from among hundreds of outstanding businesses that earn WRAP awards from the State's Integrated Waste Management Board each year. For 2003, WRAP honors went to 2,139 California companies, from which this year's top 10 WRAP of the Year honorees have been chosen. More than 10,800 WRAP honors have been awarded since the program's inception in 1993, with many companies winning the award for multiple years.

Other winners of the 2003 WRAP awards include:

  • American Licorice Company, Union City
  • Blue & Gold Fleet, LP, San Francisco
  • City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute, Duarte
  • Community Environmental Council, Santa Barbara
  • East West Partners, Truckee and Lake Tahoe areas
  • HP, San Diego
  • The Invironmentalists, The Interior Services Company of DuPont Textiles & Interiors, South San Francisco
  • Toyota North American Parts Center, Ontario
  • Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding

    More information about all WRAP award winners is available online.

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