You can add the United States and Canada to the growing list of countries for which consumer package giant Unilever has been able to achieve "zero waste to landfill" (ZLF) status for its production and headquarters facilities.

Those two countries are now added to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Japan, where the achievement has already been reached at all facilities.

"Zero waste to landfill encompasses every part of the manufacturing of the product, and activity at the plant producing the product is taken into consideration and the waste eliminated," says the web site of the Green Business Bureau. "From what happens to the metal left over in a stamping process to what happens to the food waste in the cafeteria."

So, while massive recycling programs can get a facility close to or even reach ZLF status, that is not really the idea. The focus is meant to be on redesigning processes, products and more and thus engineer as much waste out of the system as possible, and re-use or recycle what can't be designed out.

Several environmental groups offer zero waste to landfill certification programs. In the case of Unilever's announcement, it is not clear whether the company has pursued such certifications or is just self-certifying.

With this latest announcement, more than half of Unilever's 252 global factories are ZLF.

Consistent with the overview of ZLF above, Unilever says that "The key driver for this achievement of ZLF in both North America manufacturing and non-manufacturing headquarter facilities is the elimination of waste. Where reduction of waste is not sufficient, the company's facilities reuse, recycle, or recover waste to reach zero waste to landfill."

Unilever gave some examples of how this works at some of its US facilities:

• At its Owensboro, Kentucky facility, which produces pasta sauce under the Ragu and Bertolli brands, paper and plastic are sent for recycling. Those recycled materials are eventually converted into tissues and composite lumber, respectively.

• At its Clearwater, Florida plant, which makes frozen ice cream novelties under the Klondike, Breyers, Popsicle, and Good Humor brands, there is a reuse program that includes reusing cookie liners as trash bags throughout the facility, donating office furniture to Habitat for Humanity, and selling five-gallon plastic buckets to local stores.

Reducing or eliminating waste is a key component of Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan. Established in 2010, that plan aims to halve Unilever's environmental footprint of the making and use of its products by 2020. As part of this ambitious plan, Unilever is striving to be at or below 2008 levels of total waste from manufacturing facilities by 2015 (five years earlier than originally announced), despite producing significantly higher volumes.

Unilever is implementing best practices from all over the world, actively using its global supply chain network, to create more environmentally responsible factories. By using the "design once and deploy everywhere" philosophy, the company is driving a sustainable model that is good for the environment and saves costs.

"By eliminating waste, our employees are demonstrating our sustainable business model in action," said Kees Kruythoff, President, Unilever North America. "This achievement is an important milestone for Unilever as we continue to fulfill our vision of significantly reducing our environmental impact while doubling our business."

The company says its waste reduction efforts have saved almost 70 million euros thus far, and it expects that figure to increase as it moves towards meeting its 2015 goal of ensuring all 252 worldwide factories across 70 countries.

Separately, Unilever also announced that it has now cumulatively reduced by one million metric tons the amount of carbon emissions from changes to its manufacturing and logistics operations since 2008.

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