In an October 21, 2026, From the Road post, Ford senior environmental engineer Dan Esch said the company aims to achieve zero waste to landfill from manufacturing across its global operations by 2028. The post notes that Ford has 84 ZWTL sites and that since 2022, they have reduced manufacturing waste disposal by almost 25%.
Three facilities lost their ZWTL status last year. The sustainability team researched new options and added innovative recycling technologies and techniques. They’ve also created new partnerships to keep the company on track for its ZWTL goals.
While the company uses aggressive reuse and recycling practices, production workers can’t be slowed down, so they use automation when they can, like with the scrap-metal collection and recycling process at Dearborn Stamping. Some recycling tasks require manual work, and Ford keeps the process as simple as possible, like having backboards on recycling bins to avoid waste on the floor that someone would have to pick up.