Fisher Controls International

Year Submitted: 2003

Process: Packaging

Industry: Metal Fabrication

Wastes Reduced: Solid Waste

Substance: Wood Pallets

Location: McKinney TX

No. of employees: 450

Contact: Robert Butcher

Phone: (214) 548-3533

Description:

Fisher used thousands of wood pallets a year that were taken with other wood waste to a sanitary landfill. To eliminate this waste, Fisher located a local vendor that would pick up pallets at the plant, take them to a repair facility, sort them to specific categories, return them to Fisher for reuse and grind the balance of the wood waste into a mulch for ground cover.

Environmental Benefits:

The result of the process was 3,500 wood pallets per year were diverted from being landfilled.

Details of Reductions

Additional Information :

The cost savings amounted to $4.16 per pallet (compared to purchasing new pallets) or $15,560 per year, and $4,740 in disposal fees. In addition, Fisher saves several thousand dollars a year by shipping specialty pallets back to our suppliers. These pallets averaged $50 each for our supplier to build. Even with paying for shipping costs back to the supplier Fisher was able to save an average of $5,700 annually per vendor involved in the activity.

Source: TCEQ