Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Inc. has achieved major cuts in pollution emissions and waste in recent years and plans more such cuts in the near term.
Ronald Van Mynen, Carbide vice-president for health, safety, and environmental affairs, outlined progress in the company's pollution prevention programs before the U.S. Senate subcommittee on environmental protection earlier this month.
Carbide's U.S. chemical plants cut polluting air emissions by 45% during 1985-88, Van Mynen said. In addition, those plants reduced the amount of waste covered by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by 68% while their production climbed by 12% in 1982-88.
WASTE REDUCTION
Carbide in 1983 adopted a corporate policy that requires all facilities to have waste minimization programs in place and calls for waste minimization to figure in design of new processes and operations.
At the company's headquarters in Danbury, Conn., Carbide started one of the state's first comprehensive programs to recycle paper. In the first 6 months of the program, it saved 450 cu yd of landfill space, sparing the equivalent of 2,500 trees and trimming waste disposal costs by one third.
Carbide develops and updates annually programs for waste management strategies, senior management support, employee motivation and participation, and waste minimization audits and assessments.
Since 1987, every major capital project has undergone a formal waste minimization opportunity review as part of its approval process, Van Mynen said. As a result, added waste reduction measures were incorporated in more than 45% of the projects under review.
MORE CUTS AHEAD
Carbide remains committed to pressing further improvements in pollution prevention, Van Mynen said.
"In late 1988, for example, our senior management set a new series of waste reduction goals that call for, among other things, the ultimate elimination of emissions of known and suspected carcinogens and establishment of a culture that keeps waste minimization at the top of the priority list as we design and operate our facilities."
The company expects to slice chemical releases to the environment and offsite waste shipments by 57% by 1993.
That reduction includes a 67% cut in releases to the air, water, and land and a 30% cut in waste shipments to commercial treatment and disposal sites.
RECYCLING EFFORTS
Van Mynen also cited environmental benefits of Carbide's plastics recycling program.
The company is building a multiplastics recycling plant in Piscataway, N.J., to process rigid containers, flexible wrap, and film.
The plant at first will serve Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, but Van Mynen expects it ultimately to serve an area covering almost 40% of the U.S. population. The recycling plant will process used plastics to produce resins for fabrication into household bottles, pipe, and conduit, among other things.
"We foresee applications for recycled resins that mirror most of those for virgin material," Van Mynen said.
He noted communities' reluctance to commit to plastics collection/recycling.
"We need the cooperation of all levels of government, as well as individuals, to increase source separation and curbside collection of plastics," he said.
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