Waste generation and recycling

Our top priority is to reduce the amount of waste we generate. The second priority is to reuse and recycle the maximum amount of waste possible.

As with energy and water management, HARMAN uses a traditional Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to approach waste management at our production facilities. We are committed to the principles of continual improvement in reducing the amount of waste generated. Lean manufacturing and six sigma methodologies are followed to achieve these principles.

As with water consumption, the collection of historical solid waste data from our core group of 25 facilities is not yet comprehensive. The chart does not include solid waste data from Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; Nagoya, Japan; Bangalore, India; Seoul, South Korea; the Schaidt, Germany production facility, which was taken offline in April 2013; Potters Bar and Bridgend, UK, where production ended in August 2013; and Manaus, Brazil facilities.

Data management system improvements are being implemented to capture these data going forward into FY2015. The exclusion of these facilities is not expected to significantly change the trend of relatively flat solid waste disposal and recycling during the reporting period.