Lecture No. 7 Pollution Prevention Chapter 7, p.

355

This lesson examines practices that reduce or eliminate hazardous waste at the source.

1. General Considerations

Methods and EPA hierarchy. F7-1, p.356. - Source reduction - Recycling - Treatment - Disposal Waste Minimization. Any management technique or process modification that ultimately reduces the mass or toxicity sent on to treatment, storage and disposal facilities. Economic Incentives. Legal and Regulatory Incentives. Generators must certify that a waste minimization is in place. In 1991, the EPA instituted a voluntary 33/50 program which had an overall national goal of 50% reduction in the generation of 17 high-priority toxic chemicals by 1995. T7-1, p.360. Public Incentives. No public will no longer tolerate hazardous wastes.

2. Management Strategies

Planning Characterization of waste Options Feasibility Implementation Monitoring and optimization

3. Life Cycle Analysis ( LCA ) , F7-7, p.377

LCA considers the impact of al phases of industrial activity, from raw materials, acquisition and R&D to the final disposition of a product and its packaging. LCA provides an analytical framework for investigating the entire range of environmental impacts: air emissions, wastewater, solid and hazardous waste, renewable resources and energy utilization. BMW introduced a car line in which the plastic (typical car 180 lbs) parts are stamped by type during fabrication. The cars are designed for disassembly.

4. Volume Reduction

Reducing volume without reducing toxicity are sometimes explicitly excluded from the definition of source reduction.

A. Process Modifications

Raw Materials. Replace solvent based cleaners with water based cleaners. Equipment. Operating Procedures Materials Storage End Products A special and pervasive case, reducing dragout in the electroplating industry (F7-10,11, p.386) - Increase drain time - Low pressure air, air knife - Spray rinsing over process tank - Minimize concentration of metal in plating bath - Rack bars to maximize drainage - Drip bars to hold racked parts over plating baths - Maximize hole size on barrels - Rotate barrels above plating tank

B. Segregation

A primary tenet of source reduction is to avoid mixing wastes. A small amount of hazardous waste mixed with a large amount of non-hazardous waste creates a large amount of hazardous waste. Segregation permits treating smaller quantities of waste. Keep non-contact cooling water and domestic waste away from hazardous waste streams.

C. Re-use

Reclaiming a hazardous waste for use in another application. Toluene used for cleaning one ink is used to thin an ink of another color.

5. Toxicity Reduction

It is often possible to lessen the toxic characteristics sufficiently so that the remaining waste is no longer considered a hazardous waste.

Process Modification. Dry powder painting instead of using solvent based paints. Equipment Modification. Alarms to avoid bumps. Housekeeping. T7-7, p.392. Simplest and most inexpensive method of reducing hazardous waste. Includes: training, using pallets to discern leaks. Material Substitution. Non-cyanide baths in metal plating.

6. Recycling

Water. Combine acid and alkalis. Use water for a less sensitive use. Non-contact cooling water. Solvents. T7-8, p.395. Azeotropic distillation. An azeotrope is a mixture of liquids that behave as a single substance when boiled i.e. the vapor and the liquid have the same composition. Azeotropic distillation consists of adding a substance, typically steam, to a solvent that is to be recycled. The azeotrope has a lower boiling point than the original mixture thus facilitating the recovery of the solvent. Small package distillation plants are readily available. Oil. Refined and reused. Use for heat value. Solids: Paper, metal, plastics. Waste Exchanges. A regional clearinghouse to facilitate waste exchange. The first take is to exchange at the same location to avoid transportation liabilities.

HOMEWORK Read Chapter 7, Pollution Prevention, pp. 355-404 Problems, p.399, 7-1, 7-3, 7-24, 7-30