It’s up to individuals and companies alike to decrease their carbon footprint to help preserve the world for our future.
At PPC, we’re committed to the global community and see environmental sustainability not only as a responsibility, but as an opportunity to be better for the world where we work and live.
We’re constantly implementing innovative ways to minimize our environmental footprint through energy efficiency, waste reduction, recycling and conservation, and we encourage our partners to commit to sustainable practices as well.
Recycling Practices
PPC is DEC certified as a low-quantity waste generator at our headquarters in East Syracuse, NY. To achieve this, the DEC requires fewer than 2,000 pounds of waste per month, which we usually do better by generating fewer than 500 pounds per month – and that number is decreasing – due to our recycling programs.
Just a few years ago PPC used 100,000 gallons of oil per year for our manufacturing operations. We set a goal to reduce this number and implemented an on-site oil recycling system, cutting down the amount of oil we use to only 3,500 gallons per year. We are now able to recycle and reuse oil in our internal machine operations to not only save the company money, but help decrease the amount of waste from our facility.
With metal being the most-used material in our machining operations, we are always looking for ways to recycle scrap metal and reduce the amount of oil left on that scrap. All our scrap metal chips are now spun in a centrifuge to achieve a moisture content of less than 2% by weight.
Since we recycle 1.9 million pounds of aluminum and 1.8 million pounds of brass every year, we wanted to find ways to better our operation. With this reduced moisture content, we are able to ease the amount of recycling at the mill, use standard over-the-road trucking without needing hazardous waste permits, reprocess excess oil for use in machining and, ultimately, sell the scrap metal.
Some of our other efforts include recycling 100 tons of paper and cardboard annually, chipping pallets into landscape mulch, and using reclaimed soap for floor cleaning.
Energy Efficiency Practices
At our headquarters, we’re working to improve energy efficiency through HVAC by automating all HVAC controls, and installing new equipment to balance the air flow and optimize ventilation throughout our building.
We’ve also improved our energy consumption with the installation of external LED lighting and motion-controlled lighting systems that detect movement internally to save energy when lighting is not needed.
Automation machines are key to our manufacturing process, but whenever possible we use low-energy consumption air compressors to help improve the amount of energy we are using on daily basis.
Waste-Reducing Products
PPC has improved its product packaging to reduce the amount of waste for our customers as well. We traded in the usual cardboard cable reel and box for a reusable plastic reel and zippered branded bag. The use of the new Cable Tote eliminates – per reel – 2 cubic feet of cardboard, 2 plastic frames, 4 nylon straps and 20 to 50 feet of cable waste. Since we launched the Cable Tote, we’ve eliminated more than 1.7 million cubic feet of cardboard and 802,000 pounds of plastic.
The Cable Tote allows for a reduction in required storage space, both at PPC facilities and at our customers’ locations. Today, 40,000 feet of cable in the Cable Tote can fit in the same amount of space as 27,000 feet of cardboard reel or boxed packaging.
We can never do too much when it comes to environmental and sustainable practices. Whether it’s implementing a recycling program for scrap metal and oil, improving our energy or efficiency or innovating new ways to reduce waste with our products, PPC is dedicated to reducing our carbon footprint and improving the world we live in.
We’re always looking to partner with customers and suppliers who follow the same practices because it’ll be a better world if we all understand our environmental impacts and improve upon them each day.