Beyond the environmental benefits, reducing waste and increasing resource efficiency helps lower our costs and supports operational efficiency. We consider circularity in our product design, use raw materials as efficiently as possible, minimize operational waste and promote reuse and recycling throughout our value chain.
We consider circularity in our product design, use raw materials as efficiently as possible, minimize operational waste and promote reuse and recycling throughout our value chain. Beyond the environmental benefits, reducing waste and increasing resource efficiency helps lower our costs and supports operational efficiency.
In 2025, our waste intensity decreased by 3% compared to the 2019 baseline. While operating sites have continued to implement waste reduction measures, we expect that progress toward our waste goals will not be linear. Extensive cleaning and maintenance processes, which are completed at some of our larger facilities every two to three years, result in increased waste output, and we expect variability in our waste intensity as a result.
PPG continues to invest in projects that will reduce our waste output while delivering cost savings over the coming years. At our sites in Moreuil, France, and San Juan del Rio, Mexico, we are developing new wastewater treatment plants that will combine to deliver 4,600 MT in annual waste reduction and an estimated $340,000 in annual savings. We are also exploring opportunities to upgrade or replace wastewater treatment plants at four of our major wastewater generation sites in the U.S. and Brazil, which would deliver an additional 6,000 MT of annual waste reduction.
We acknowledge that recycling is less efficient than waste elimination, repurposing and reuse. Reusing materials that would have otherwise been recycled helps reduce our yield loss and ultimately improves profitability. While we encourage reuse and repurposing where possible, we also recognize that recycling plays an important role in keeping waste out of landfills.
In 2025, PPG invested in onsite water treatment technologies at several sites to reduce waste generation and lower annual cleaning and disposal costs. At our Wuhu, China, facility, we installed a water evaporator that captures and reuses water from cleaning processes, cutting wastewater generation by 50% and reducing freshwater use for cleaning and disposal. Our Hemmelrath sites in Germany implemented coagulation/flocculation systems to recover process water from container cleaning stations. The systems remove suspended solids and organic matter so the water can be reused, avoiding approximately 1,000 metric tons of wastewater each year.
PPG supports the circular economy by focusing on every stage of the product life cycle. We review opportunities to reduce waste from the sourcing of raw materials, through the manufacturing process, to the application and usage of products, and their end of life. We continue to advance our circularity approach by understanding how PPG already contributes to the circular economy, identifying new research and development projects to support these efforts, and developing a formal circular economy strategy to guide future efforts.
Beginning in our 2026 reporting cycle, we are enhancing the way we measure and report waste performance. While we will continue to disclose historical waste metrics, we will shift our 2030 goal to focus on the amount of waste directed to disposal. This provides a clearer measure of lost materials and their environmental and economic impact.
By focusing on waste directed to disposal, we improve our ability to manage what is ultimately lost from our system, while maintaining transparency on total waste generation and circular material flows. This updated methodology reflects evolving regulatory and market expectations that emphasize waste prevention, circularity and the preservation of material value.
We will continue to report comprehensive waste data in accordance with GRI standards and provide clear bridges between historical and updated metrics to ensure comparability over time.
The median spill in 2025 was 12,548 pounds, with 100% of spills contained onsite. We had 5 substantial spills during the year, which totaled 83,651 gallons (316,653 liters). Many of these spills have been attributed to issues with mechanical integrity or work instruction practices. In 2025, our overall spill rate increased slightly, from 1.34 to 1.50 spills per 1,000 employees. While the overall rate has increased year over year, we have seen reductions in the median volume and severity of spills. Much of this improvement can be attributed to our increased focus on incident reduction at critical sites, which account for an outsized percentage of our overall spills and releases. Our EHS team engaged directly with frontline workers at these sites to identify vulnerabilities and develop additional safety procedures. This proactive engagement translated to significant year over year improvements, with spill rates at our critical sites falling by up to 21%.
PPG facilities employ management practices to prevent spills and releases, including employee engagement activities, training, spill elimination assessments, operational improvements, self-assessments and best practice sharing. We engage with PPG employees through job safety analysis (JSA), a systematic process designed to identify potential hazards and develop improved work practices for carrying out a specific task or job operation. We also distribute spill prevention educational packages on topics such as "Seven Pillars of Spill Prevention" and "Walk the Line Implementation Guidance." All training materials are available in multiple languages to support accessibility. Our EHS Management System contains additional tools that help address causal factors, such as equipment, process or people interactions, to prevent future spills and releases.
In 2025, we updated our approach to managing and reporting on spills. As part of this initiative, we transitioned spill definitions and categorizations to align with guidance from the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). The new system simplifies our data collection process and better aligns with peers' reporting, helping us to benchmark our performance. In line with CCPS guidance, spills and releases will be classified into one of three categories - Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 - based on the following factors:
Throughout 2025, regional EHS teams facilitated webinars and other communications to build awareness about the new system. We officially completed the transition on January 1, 2026, with the release of updated EHS Management system documents.
For more detailed information about our ongoing approach to waste management and circularity, see the bottom of this web page.
Thousand metric tons
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| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2019 | |
| Waste generated | 166.35 | 165.15 | 166.35 | 183.48 |
Total waste intensity metric tons per 100 metric tons of production | 4.69 | 4.83 | 4.84 | 4.82 |
| Disposed | 85.46 | 86.21 | 87.95 | 107.06 |
Disposal intensity metric tons per 100 metric tons of production | 2.41 | 2.52 | 2.56 | 2.81 |
| Waste Recycled | 80.89 | 78.94 | 78.39 | 76.42 |
Disposed waste does not include waste that is recycled, reclaimed or incinerated for energy recovery. Waste generated includes all waste from manufacturing and R&D locations generated as a consequence of the activities involved in the production of our products and services. Data changes from prior reporting reflect adjustments for acquired and divested locations.
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| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2019 | |
Generated thousand metric tons | 66.68 | 69.74 | 69.61 | 75.90 |
Recycled percent | 35% | 37% | 39% | 34% |
Disposed thousand metric tons | 43.47 | 43.95 | 42.21 | 50.23 |
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| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2019 | |
Generated thousand metric tons | 99.67 | 95.41 | 96.74 | 107.57 |
Recycled percent | 58% | 56% | 53% | 47% |
Disposed thousand metric tons | 41.99 | 42.25 | 45.74 | 56.83 |
Disposed waste includes waste that is sent off site for landfill, incineration without energy recovery and physical/chemical treatment. We report our hazardous waste data using the regulatory framework of each country where we operate. Data changes from prior reporting reflect adjustments for acquired and divested locations.
Per 1,000 employees
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| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2019 |
| 1.5 | 1.34 | 1.66 | 1.52 |
Waste figures represent global waste data, excluding waste generated from fire suppression system at Circleville, Ohio, facility.