(December 1, 2009) Recycling cardboard from GM’s stamping plant in Marion, Ind., is helping take the 2010 Buick LaCrosse to the next level of quietness.

“A lot of people don’t understand that recycled materials can add quality,” said Lora Herron, a materials engineer on the LaCrosse team. “It can add superior performance depending on where you use it and how you use it.”

In the case of the LaCrosse, supplier Federal Mogul ground up the cardboard and created a substrate for the headliner beneath the roof.  The substrate is not something a customer would likely see, but Herron said it’s significant for its “wonderful acoustic quality” and helping make the LaCrosse “a smidge quieter.”

And cabin quietness is a Buick hallmark.  Using recycled cardboard in the Lacrosse  helps improve  acoustic performance and it helps the Marion plant  maintain its landfill-free status. Marion, like 55 other GM facilities around the world, sends no waste from its manufacturing operations to a landfill. Instead, it recycles, reuses or creates energy from waste it creates.

“If we want things to get better, we have to make them better for our customers,” Herron said. “With the new LaCrosse, that was one example, and it makes me want to keep looking for ways to make use of recycled materials.”