- Engines
- Gauges & Controls
- Propellers
- Inflatable Boats
- Parts & Accessories
-
Service & Support
Storage & Maintenance
Customer Support
Product Protection
Caring for the Environment
2013 Goal
- Further advance practical recycling programs for all materials
2015 Goals
- Implement global environmental sustainability reporting for all facilities
- Through documented water conservation projects, reduce use of water by 20 percent (from 2005 levels)
Introduction
Mercury Marine will expand its present efforts to recycle waste materials from our facilities. Water conservation, re-use and recycle practices will reduce process-water consumption across our manufacturing and engineering sectors.
Actions
- Adopt recycling programs for all facilities for metals, paper, plastic and cardboard, where practical
- Establish global water-usage baselines and develop systems for aggregating and reporting annual water usage
- Establish semi-annual performance reports by each facility through the Mercury Marine Environmental Sustainability Report
Mercury U.S. Water Usage
Using water responsibly is a major focus at Mercury Marine. Water use at Mercury’s manufacturing sites declined from 270 million gallons in 2005 to 150 million gallons in 2011.
|
Mercury U.S. Hazardous Waste
Over the past seven years, Mercury Marine has reduced hazardous waste production at its facilities by 55 percent*.
*In 2011 there was an increase in hazardous waste due to the decommissioning of a major manufacturing facility. |
Achievements
Caring for the Environment
- Styrene emissions were reduced by 96 percent following the installation in 2002 of an oxidizer in the lost-foam casting area.
- Mercury is the only marine engine manufacturer with a remanufacturing program that refurbishes preowned outboard, inboard and sterndrive engines and components so they can be returned to the marketplace. This sustains the environment by re-using good engine components that might otherwise be abandoned. Since the Mercury Remanufacturingprogram was launched in 1996, approximately 22,700 marine engines have been returned to service.
- A 96-percent reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions was achieved by installing an oxidizer on the Indoor Engine Endurance Facility exhaust in 1999, a feature that has since eliminatedthe discharge of 6,600 tons of CO and 1,600 tons of VOC. Water in this facility is continuously re-used to minimize discharge.
- A new primer/paint formula used in the assembly plant has reduced hazardous air pollutants by 50 percent since 2008.
Aluminum Recycling
Producing just one pound of primary aluminum requires 5.8 kilowatthours (kwh) of electrical energy. Mercury Marine has developed a family of aluminum die-casting alloys that can be recycled into almost any foundry alloy, using 95 percent less energy than needed to produce equal amounts of primary aluminum. For Mercury Marine’s annual requirements alone, that amounts to savings of 139 million kwh of electrical energy – enough to power 13,000 average homes for a year – and avoids the production of 300 million pounds of carbon dioxide.
Less Waste
Media sludge from Mercury’s propeller-polishing operation was previously landfilled. Since 2005, this material has been used as feeder stock for wastewater treatment in our adjacent die-cast plant. Landfilled waste is reduced, and we were able to purchase 85 fewer tons of new feeder stock for the water-treatment system in our die-cast operations.
