Waste Reduction

In FY ’09, we attained a 26% reduction in our solid waste metric (as measured by tons of solid waste sent to the landfill per $1,000,000 net sales).

We attribute these reductions to two main causes:

• First, our Operations team implemented several initiatives focused on scrap reduction in our Waterbury VT facility at the end of FY ’08 (revised quality control protocols which decreased the need for destructive testing, for example).  We reaped the benefits of those programs throughout FY ‘09.
• Second, at our Waterbury VT production facility, we were able to expand our recycling to include obsolete packaging film which, until now, had been land-filled.  In FY ’09, we conducted a pilot program to test this material’s viability in our recycling stream and we expect to roll it out more fully in FY ‘10.