Unilever has achieved zero waste to landfill (ZLF) at all 26 of its North American manufacturing and non-manufacturing headquarter facilities, according to a company press release.

In order to achieve zero waste to landfill, Unilever’s facilities are now reusing, recycling, or recovering waste wherever possible. At its Clearwater, Florida plant for example, a “reuse program” includes reusing cookie liners as trash bags throughout the facility and selling five-gallon plastic buckets to local stores.

“By eliminating waste, our employees are demonstrating our sustainable business model in action,” said Kees Kruythoff, President, Unilever North America.

Waste reduction has been a focal point of Unilever’s sustainability agenda, which aims to halve the environmental footprint of the manufacture and use of Unilever’s products by 2020. The company has already achieved zero waste to landfill at its headquarter facilities in United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Japan. In addition, more than half of Unilever’s 252 global factories are ZLF.

Unilever is striving to be at or below 2008 levels of total waste from manufacturing facilities by 2015 – five years earlier than originally announced.

Separately, the company announced that since 2008 it has achieved a CO2 reduction of more than one million tonnes from its manufacturing and logistics operations – the equivalent of to taking 250,000 cars off the road. The company has achieved this through eco-efficiency measures including its manufacturing waste capture, which has generated significant savings.

“Since 2008 our eco-efficiency programmes have avoided more than €300 million of costs. Almost €100 million in energy; €186 million in materials; €17 million in water; and €10 million in waste disposal. The benefits are very clear in a world where energy prices are increasing”, said John Maguire, Unilever’s Group Manufacturing Sustainability Director.