Abstract |
The environmental regulation of hazardous wastes from plating operations has added substantial operating responsibilities, operating costs and long-term liability potential to all firms, large and small. The public, through a governmental regulatory agency, expects all firms to comply with these regulations and it will severely penalize those who do not comply through legal action as well as negative publicity. Generators of hazardous waste are also required on each waste manifest to sign a statement that they have a program in place to reduce the quantity of hazardous waste they generate. Waste minimization is a key way to achieve environmental regulatory compliance. The specific objective was to combine well-known, simple techniques into a near zero discharge operating system and to represent the system by a computer model. Such a model is applicable to all electroplating firms. |