Waste-minimization assessment for a manufacturer of aluminum cans. Environmental research brief

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5166246

Kirsch, F W; Looby, G P

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 who 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 WMAC team 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 their findings 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. The 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.

• Research Organization: University City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5166246
• Report Number(s): PB-91-234575/XAB; CNN: EPA-R-814903
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320305* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Industrial & Agricultural Processes-- Industrial Waste Management
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
BEVERAGES
CLEANING
COATINGS
CONTAINERS
CONTROL
FOOD
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MATERIALS RECOVERY
MINIMIZATION
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PAINTS
POLLUTION CONTROL
PROCESSING
RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOVERY
RECYCLING
SOLVENTS
US EPA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE OILS
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL