Corvette Paint Used to Generate Electricity

GM used to send the leftover paint from its Corvette factory in Kentucky to a landfill. Now, in a partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Corvette plant will send the used paint to a Paradise Fossil plant for electricity generation.

The program is called "Vettes to Watts," and it joins other TVA alternative-fuel projects ranging from wood chips to tires.

The company Waste Management will truck 360 tons of paint chips to the Paradise plant every year, where it will be added to coal already being burned. Once dry, the paint has no volatile compounds and is classified as non-hazardous waste.

Still, don't run off and call the project "green" quite so fast — it's still burning paint and coal to generate power. But it is recycling.

TVA, GM Join to Burn Paint Chips (Detroit Free Press)

Comments

Wow, 360 tons of paint chips from one factory? I wonder what the total waste is for all the factories? It seems like GM could save a lot of money if they were able to reduce overspray.

Yeah, GR has a point. How come GM was producing THAT much excess paint? Well, at least now it's being recycled. Somehow, it can be called 'green', but not so much as solar and wind power. Doesn't paint produce hazardous chemicals when burned?