The U.S. automotive industry generates about 75 million pounds of paint sludge each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Most of the toxic waste paint is caught in water filtration systems and ends up in landfills.

But The Acme Group, under its Great Lakes Filters division, launched new filter systems called NeuBond over the summer to collect, recycle and redistribute this waste — and the filter itself — as plastic resin, which then goes back to the auto industry.

NeuBond was created through an exclusive contract between Bloomfield Hills-based Acme and Preferred Filter Recycling in St. Clair Shores. Preferred invented the proprietary process.

Acme manufactures the filters in Hillsdale, and the spent filters and contaminates are recycled at Preferred’s plant in St. Clair Shores, said Matt Utley, director of sales for Acme and former COO of Great Lakes Filters.

Utley said the new recyclable filters represent a change for Acme, which has been in business since 1917.

“There is a certain need in the industry for zero-landfill plants,” Utley said. “Great Lakes was a commodity business, and we were looking to innovate and get out of the nickel-and-dime side of our business. We’ve done that.”

The filters are more expensive, Utley said, but savings are realized when waste removal is eliminated.

Utley said NeuBond is keeping 5 million pounds of waste out of landfills this year, and he expects that to double next year.

“Anybody else that’s trying to avoid the landfill has to incinerate these filters; no one has the process to clean them where they can create commercial-grade resin, except us,” Utley said.

“Customers can, in turn, realize the savings on the resin they are already buying on the products.”

The recycled filters and waste are currently being recycled into plastic pallets and noncritical parts in seats, Utley said.

Acme has contracts for the NeuBond filters with Plymouth-based Metaldyne LLC at its Litchfield plant near Jackson and with a Michigan-based automaker, Utley said.

In less than two fiscal quarters, the recyclable program already represents 15 percent, or $6 million, of Acme’s projected $40 million in revenue in 2013. Utley said the plan is to build NeuBond to represent at least 50 percent of Acme’s business over the next five years.

“The better off we are, the better off the customer is,” Utley said, “because that means we’re eliminating a bigger waste stream at their plant.”