Optimization of the waste management on a car factory : reduction of the non-reusable waste

Abstract

To combat waste pollution of our lands and oceans, actions need to be taken both by industries and individually to reduce the consumption and the production that creates more waste than necessary. The car factory of Stellantis Mulhouse is working towards the reduction of its waste production as one of its sustainability challenges. Coved is the company currently taking care of the waste management of the site and is helping to achieve this goal.

The purpose of this thesis was to explain why it was important to initiate a change of collection points from the outdoors on the site of Stellantis Mulhouse and show where these new collection points should be placed to optimize the waste management of the site. Another goal was to calculate the cost savings that Coved, would get from retrieving recyclable waste from the Solid Waste (SW). The study was conducted by gathering data with on field inventory and analysis of the waste production.

The results collected after the inventory indicate that no collection points for recyclable waste are available and that collection points were damaged confirming the needs for a change. The inventory also helped identifying the areas needing collection points and the ones that did not require any or that needed fewer. The results gathered through the calculations show that up to 43% of the cost could be saved if all the recyclable waste present in the SW was retrieved.

Changing the collection points would increase the current maximum occupancy rate and mitigate issues related to littering and even though some disadvantages can be found, it will be beneficial for everyone in the future. The new collection points are being places according to the inventory, to cover every zone, and the addition of recyclable waste collection points will help retrieve the recyclable waste from the SW.

In the perspective of reducing SW as much as possible it would be interesting to analyse the amount of biowaste included in the SW and check if a separate collection of biowaste would be beneficial in achieving the reduction of SW but also the reduction of the total costs.