White Marsh is slated to get greener.
Home to the General Motors Powertrain Baltimore Transmission Plant, White Marsh ? and the region ? will see environmental benefits as the manufacturing facility continues to push ahead in environmentally responsible business practices. The 400-plus-employee plant will become the fourth General Motors site in America to become “landfill-free,” and an official announcement is expected next month.
“There are a lot of opportunities in a shop like that to recycle and treat hazardous waste in a responsible manner,” said Brad Heavner, executive director of Environment Maryland. “If the plan is indeed to close the loop, we would love tosee more businesses taking steps like this.”
GM says it will no longer haul any waste from its White Marsh location to a landfill and will recycle a large percentage of that garbage, including things such as metal shavings and scraps. This site, which produces more than 175,000 transmissions per year, generates nearly 7,500 tons of waste as a result.
The impact of becoming “landfill-free” is important, especially since the average person generates 4.5 pounds of waste each day, the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development indicated.
“Our Baltimore facility is a great example of how GM is working to reduce the impact of both our operations and our vehicles on the environment,” said John C. Raut, communications manager for GM?s Baltimore and Fredericksburg location.
Aside from manufacturing the Allison six-speed transmissions for the Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, the White Marsh plant will become the only factory in America to produce the light-duty two-mode hybrid transmission for the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid. Production of the hybrid transmissions is expected to begin this fall.
Being chosen to produce this unique product was a big win for the plant, which underwent a $118 million upgrade to handle the modified production requirements. To fuel these new vehicles and others in the growing market, GM also announced it would open a new E85 ethanol gas facility in the Washington area at the end of the week.
“This just shows that clean energy is good for business,” Heavner said.
