Success Story

Recycling Project a Win-Win for Environment and Job Seekers

Each day, U.S. businesses generate enough paper waste to circle the Earth 20 times. Discarded paper is the largest single component in America's landfills. And, the volume of paper waste is steadily increasing along with the costs of complying with the environmental regulations that govern landfill usage.

These and other sobering statistics prompted the Kimberly-Clark mill in Marinette, WI, to team up with Goodwill Industries of Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan on a project that helps reduce landfill waste and puts people to work. Kimberly-Clark has a corporate objective to stop sending its manufacturing wastes to landfills by year-end 2005. As of year-end 2002, the company had diverted 60 percent of its global manufacturing wastes from landfills into recycling opportunities.

The new initiative has a team of Goodwill clients repackaging discarded paper products that would otherwise end up as landfill waste. The recycled product - rolled blue paper towels and quarter-fold wipes - is mainly for industrial use, and is re-sold by Kimberly-Clark in the Marinette region.

“The project is good for the community, good for the environment and good for business,” says Robert Visscher, Kimberly-Clark's team leader on the project.

And it's also good for the people served by Goodwill who need work experience.

“Many of our clients have some form of mental or physical challenge, or other workplace barrier,” says Marcia Janezic, Goodwill's Director of Marketing and Development. “Working on this project gives them a different set of skills. From there, it's just a natural transition for them to move into other jobs within the community.”

After being collected in special recycling bins, the rejected products are transported to Goodwill and passed on to the recycling team of six to 12 clients that inspects, folds, counts, weighs and repackages the product. The repackaging process gives clients a chance to develop hand dexterity and coordination.

Each day, the Goodwill team recycles up to 600 pounds of paper. To date, they have repacked enough paper product to fill 12 dozen tractor trailers. The success of this program is due to much hard work and input from many people, including Jim Schutt, Logistics Team Leader, Sherry Hunter, Quality Team Leader, both from Kimberly-Clark, and Jan VenEnkenvort, Director of Manufacturing at Goodwill.

“They just love working in partnership with Kimberly-Clark,” Janezic says of the Goodwill recycling team. “They're proud to be doing something for the community, and the environment overall. It's a win-win for everyone involved.” 

Source: Working! Summer 2003