You are here:
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH BRIEF: WASTE MINIMIZATION ASSESSMENT FOR A MANUFACTURER OF ALUMINUM CANS
Citation:
Kirsch, F. W. AND G. P. Looby. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH BRIEF: WASTE MINIMIZATION ASSESSMENT FOR A MANUFACTURER OF ALUMINUM CANS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/M-91/025 (NTIS 91-234575), 1991.
Impact/Purpose:
present information
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has funded a pilot project to assist small- and medium- size manufacturers who want to minimize their generation of hazardous waste but lack the expertise to do so. Waste Minimization Assessment Centers (WMACs) were established at selected universities and procedures were adapted from the EPA Waste Minimization Opportunity Assessment Manual (EPA/625/7-88/003, July 1988). The WMACteam at Colorado State University inspected a plant producing more than one billion aluminum cans each year for a local beverage producer. After the cans have been formed, they are cleaned and painted. These two operations generate the waste: most can cleaning wastes are treated and sewered, and the hazardous painting and inking operations' wastes are shipped to a hazardous waste disposal facility. The on-site treatment facility treats the can washing effluent so that the oil can be hauled to an oil recycler, the sludge disposed of off-site, and the clarified liquid discharged to the sewer. Because the plant had already initiated many steps to minimize and manage its wastes, the WMAC's team report, detailing theirf indings and recommendations, was only able to suggest that a nonhazardous reagent be substituted for the presently used reagent that contains from 2% to 4% ammonium fluozirconate. The can washing sludge would then be nonhazardous, and all of the hazardous waste disposal costs could be saved. This Research Brief was developed by the principal investigators and EPA's Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, to announce key findings of an ongoing research project that is fully documented in a separate report of the same title available from the authors.