As part of our commitment to reduce the environmental impact of our products, we strive to find new and innovative ways to improve our sustainability performance at every stage of manufacturing. In early 2022, we started a local partnership with Irving Consumer Products, another manufacturing company operating in Macon, GA, to reduce waste and support a more circular manufacturing system.
Irving Consumer Products makes tissue products like bathroom tissue, paper towels and diapers, and discards waste fiber as part of its manufacturing process. Rather than going to the landfill, Armstrong has been integrating that fiber byproduct into the production of our mineral fiber ceiling tiles.
Since the 1980s, Armstrong has used recycled paper in our tiles. By integrating Irving’s waste fibers into our production stream, we are able to increase our ability to source sustainable materials over the long-term.
Our partnership with Irving began thanks to a former Armstrong employee who, after moving to Irving, identified the potential opportunity for collaboration. After successfully completing a pilot in early 2022, the Macon plant installed a new mixing hopper designed to receive and transfer loose waste fiber directly into the existing mixing process. Armstrong and Irving Consumer Products expect to divert more than 3,500 tons of fiber waste annually from landfill disposal, supporting their circularity and waste diversion sustainability goals.
“This partnership is a win-win, and a great example of companies working together at a local level to help solve a global problem while improving our own processes. We diversify our raw material stream and save in cost and energy related to shipping heavy material like paper. Irving Consumer Products saves on landfill costs and its fiber by-product can live another life as Armstrong ceiling tile.”
– William Woolard, Macon Plant Manager
