- Hino South Africa is making substantial progress in addressing environmental challenges at its manufacturing plant in Prospecton, near Durban, with special focus on greening its electricity supply and decreasing the amount of waste going to landfills.
“Hino South Africa, like all the other Hino factories and distributors around the world, is committed to assist Hino Motors Limited in its Environmental Challenge 2050, where the target is carbon neutrality,” commented Anton Falck, Vice President of Hino SA. “We have already taken substantial steps on our pathway to lower the carbon footprint of our products and our manufacturing facility in Prospecton”.
“This year will see us double the energy output from our solar roof panel project, as well as targeting to divert 81% of factory waste from landfills,” explained Falck.
“Currently the roof panels provide 600 kWp. A further 800 kWp will be added by the middle of the year as a further 6 600 m 2 of roofing is covered with solar panels. This will bring the total energy output to 1 400 kWp. Roof repairs and strengthening of the support structure is already in progress with the installation of panels, inverters, and cables due to commence in April. Construction will take place at night to prevent any impact on manufacturing operations during the day,” he added.
Hino SA is aiming to become a zero waste to landfill manufacturing facility. Hino SA’s factory waste in 2021 amounted to 31.67 tons and 72% was diverted from going to landfills. In 2022 77% of the 28.84 tons of waste was diverted and last year the amount of waste decreased to 20.88 tons, with 71% diverted from landfills. As mentioned earlier, this year the target is to divert 81% of waste from going to landfills.
Waste segregation takes place at source and then there are various methods of disposing of it, so it does not go to landfills. Dry, hazardous waste is disposed of through incineration, while food waste from the canteen is recycled using a biological method – the Bugology Treatment – which involves feeding waste food to maggots, more specifically the amazing Black Soldier, which converts it to compost in a nine-hour cycle.
