Hutchinson Technology finds alternative to sending waste to landfill

Hutchinson Technology Inc.’s products might be tiny: disk drive components no larger than your pinky. But the hundreds of people and processes that make them produce enormous amounts of waste.

So much waste, in fact, that if left noncompacted, it would fill the Wal-Mart store on State Highway 15 South more than twice a year.

But not a single ounce of that waste is now going to a landfill. Since this spring, the company’s annual garbage output of 675 tons has been either recycled or converted into electricity. In a year’s time, it is expected to generate enough electricity to power 1,200 homes.

The company’s workers feel good about their efforts, said Rick Larson, who works for an outside firm that manages Hutchinson Technology’s waste and other facility services.

“It’s been positive because everybody wants to be associated with being environmentally conscious, as being good community members,” Larson said.

The no-waste-to-landfill achievement is the latest environmental victory for the company, which has received numerous prestigious state awards for its environmental practices.

The Hutchinson plant has long done its part to separate common recyclable items such as steel, aluminum, office paper and cardboard. But the problem of what do with garbage — cafeteria and restroom trash, gloves, hairnets and the like — has been around for years.

For the full story, see the Sept. 27 Leader.

(Doug Hanneman is editor of the Hutchinson Leader. He may be reached at hanneman@hutchinsonleader.com)