Boeing is aggressively pursuing reductions in manufacturing waste across the value stream, from better coordination with our partners to reduce unused chemicals to replacing hazardous materials with more environmentally progressive solutions. Since 2002, manufacturing waste has been reduced by 30.8 percent on a revenue-adjusted basis. Last year, Boeing’s Mesa facility began using a new, chrome-free paint primer on Apache helicopters in production to reduce chrome usage and manufacturing waste. And our paint hangars in Everett, Seattle, and Renton, Wash., have replaced the conventional chromated conversion coat with a Boeing-invented sol-gel material to eliminate chromium. At our Everett paint hangar in 2007, the chemical substitution resulted in a reduction in rinse water usage by 160,000 gallons and eliminated chromated wastewater for this process.
We will boost our recycling rates from approximately 60 percent to 75 percent by 2012 through a number of different initiatives, including the maturing of office recycling programs to reduce cans, bottles, and paper from landfills. Specific sites have already made significant improvements; for example, our fabrication facility in Portland, Ore., recycled 93.7 percent of all solid waste in 2007.