It's quite a feat for a standard household or a small business to produce little to no waste each day, but that premise was taken home at the Baltimore, Md. transmission plant of General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM). The world's second-largest automaker said that its automotive transmission plant is now recycling and reusing all involved parts as a result of the manufacturing process as well as converting all energy produced by 'waste' products. This means the plant is not producing a single bit of waste that needs to be taken to a landfill. In fact, the plant now is not sending anything at all to any landfills anywhere.

The Baltimore plant makes 189,000 transmissions annually and was set to deposit more than 7,500 tons of waste to nearby landfills. Well, no more, according to GM. The plant is now being charged with manufacturing a dual-mode transmission in concert with BMW and DaimlerChrysler, which will be made available in its full size SUV vehicles later in 2007. These include the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon and Denali, among others.

It's a fascinating move from GM in that the plant that will be making a new type of transmission meant to be used with both electric-based propulsion as well as traditional gasoline engines will be producing no landfill waste. In my book, that's a huge 'green' score for GM in the race to produce more energy-efficient vehicles while not trashing the surrounding environment with waste products that are just as polluting. In other words, kudos to GM on this one.

Hybrid vehicles as a category is picking up steam with the American public. As as prices hover around $2.80, there is little to no relief in sight for that go-juice that powers almost all our cars and trucks. With a hybrid Chevy Camaro being rumored for sometime in the future (General Motors (NYSE:GM) really needs to do this), how about hybrid versions of several popular full-size SUVs for the Detroit automaker? These are in addition to the E85 Ethanol-powered cars and trucks already on the market form GM.

These are not rumors, but are coming this fall to a GM dealer near you. The hybrid versions of the GMC Yukon and the Chevy Tahoe should be landing on the doorsteps of dealers here in a few months, with a combination V8 gas engine and an electric motor powered by batteries that are recharged using "regenerative braking" techniques widely used in hybrid cars and trucks already.

GM claims a 25% increase in fuel economy, with a slightly higher figure in city driving since quite a bit of driving will happen under 32 mph. When driving under that figure, the gas engine won't even be on (no gas burning). Although a 25% increase in fuel economy for a large SUV just barely brings it up to where most normal passenger cars (non-hybrid) already are, what is the point, you may say? Well, to those that must have an SUV and who are in the market, these hybrid versions may may be good options. But if prices are 30% higher than all-gas counterparts, GM may see sales sit on the sideline instead of replacing normal gas-guzzler SUV sales.