SOUTHAMPTON, Pa.—NewAge Industries Inc., a maker of plastic and rubber tubing, reports the company has received landfill-free status.
The Southampton-based company is using a variety of techniques—recycling, reuse and incineration—to avoid sending materials to landfills.
"This has been a goal of ours as part of our sustainability program," CEO Ken Baker said in a statement. "We went solar in 2011. Plant investments followed in the form of new windows, energy efficient lighting, building insulation and high efficiency motors and capacitors. Going landfill free was a logical step."
Extruded plastic tubing, at the beginning of a production run, is a manufacturing byproduct. The material cannot be used because it does not meet dimensional requirements. This beginning-of-the-run material can add up to thousands of pounds of material each year.
However, the company said, the tubing "is reused and made into new tubing whenever possible. Some rubber tubing scrap is able to be recycled as well and is incorporated into other industrial products."
NewAge Industries makes both reinforced and unreinforced plastic and rubber tubing, and has been an employee-owned company since 2006.
"We're proud to be part of an environmentally friendly solution to the challenge of waste disposal," Baker in his statement. "It makes NewAge a better neighbor and supports corporate social responsibility. It just makes good business sense."