Pollution prevention (P2) is any practice that reduces or eliminates the use, generation, or release of hazardous materials or toxic chemicals into the environment. It’s considered more impactful and cheaper than the costs related to recycling, treatment, or disposal.
When businesses implement P2 practices, they can realize cost savings and improve worker health and safety. However, these benefits also extend to communities at large. By using less toxic chemicals and reducing your environmental footprint, our community uses less resources and reduces the risk of releases to the environment.
P2 practices can result in:
Reduced dangerous waste generation and toxic chemical use.
Many businesses generate dangerous waste, which requires that they manage this waste according to the Dangerous Waste Regulations (WAC 173-303). Businesses that generate large amounts of dangerous waste are required to prepare a P2 plan, which identifies P2 opportunities.
However, businesses can learn to follow well established P2 practices to reduce their waste and limit their environmental impact.
Recommended P2 practices for businesses
Below are recommended, practical P2 practices for the following business types:
Autobody shops regularly use hazardous solvents and produce common types of dangerous waste to repair and paint vehicles they service.
Recommended P2 practices for autobody shops
There are a variety of ways to implement P2 practices and improve your shop's environmental footprint:
Recycle shop towels.
Industrial laundry services can replace the need to buy rags, and decrease waste, costs, and contaminants coming from your shop.
Mix the smallest amount of paint for a job.
Save resources while reducing waste and the chance for a spill.
Replace chromium and lead paints with safer alternatives.
Our technical assistance staff can help you switch out your products for safer alternatives that are just as effective.
Reuse solvents.
Clean parts with used solvent, then a cleaner solvent.
Recycle when possible.
When you recycle, you reduce waste and potential costs and fees associated with disposal.
Recycle on-site
Recycling materials on-site is one of the best ways to increase material use and lower costs over the long run. You can recycle the following materials yourself or use a waste service provider to do so:
Having your own equipment can reduce costs by allowing you to recycle on-site or use your materials more efficiently. Recommended equipment autobody shops may find useful to invest in include:
Stills (to recycle solvents).
Electronic paint systems (to mix and match paints more efficiently).
Dry cleaning and garment care businesses can generate dangerous waste such as chemicals that can contaminate water and soil, and be hazardous to workers. Learn more about how to handle and manage dangerous waste at dry cleaners.
P2 best practices for dry cleaners include:
Use newer, more efficient equipment (like a closed loop dry-to-dry system) to reduce solvent use and waste.
Replace activated carbon adsorber PERC traps with a refrigerated condenser to reduce PERC-contaminated separator water.
Dissolve any additive completely before the solvent goes through the filter.
Fill the filter housing completely with solvent when you are not using the equipment.
Keep solvent return temperatures at or below 90 degrees F or 32 degrees Centigrade (C) when you run the still. This decreases solvent loss through the storage tank vent.
Inspect equipment and piping regularly for leaks, worn parts, proper temperatures, and solvent "mileage." Repair problems quickly.
Separator water
Always manage separator water as dangerous waste:
Collect it in a container (leave 4 inches between fill line and lid).
Label the container "toxic waste" and write the accumulation start date.
Do not dispose of it down a drain, toilet, or sink.
Do not evaporate or mist it.
Do not pour it on the ground.
Metal finishers conduct a variety of operations, including anodizing, electroplating, etching, and other forms of metal surface preparation. The metal ion-bearing solutions used at metal finishing facilities often contain chromium, zinc, nickel, and other metals.
Recommended P2 practices for electroplating and metal finishing shops
Improve rinse water efficiency
Electroplating and metal finishing shops can reduce waste generation and disposal costs by applying rinse water P2 practices to improve efficiency.
Set up plating processes with rinse water in mind.
Allow rinse water to flow counter-current to part processing.
Consider adding additional rinse tanks in series.
Place flow restrictors on rinse flows that are not automatically controlled by pH or conductivity.
Use rinse water from the most concentrated rinse (the first rinse) to make up the process bath (such as plating). Chemicals can be recovered without compromising part quality.
Add rinse water only as needed.
Add rinse water directly onto the parts as they leave the rinse.
Use a rinse bath pH or conductivity to activate rinse water additions.
Avoid contamination.
Never use rinse water from a cleaning process, like an acid or alkaline etch. The rinse water will contaminate the bath.
Promote evaporation.
Use oil-free air to agitate rinse baths. This improves rinse efficiency and encourages evaporation.
Use heat baths to promote evaporation.
Use updated techniques and equipment.
Use flow restrictors to prevent the flow of water supply pipes from exceeding a predetermined flow rate.
Install a rinse timer and automated rinser to improve intermittent rinses and eliminate operator errors.
Use spray rinsing instead of immersion rinsing. This uses less water.
Use a drag-out recovery tank
A drag-out recovery tank is a tank that acts as a pre-rinse to the countercurrent rinses. It concentrates rinsed-off process chemicals so they can be added back to the tank.
Use the following technique:
Drip parts over tanks. 30 seconds is ideal.
Place drain boards between tanks. This keeps drips running into the right bath.
Rack parts. This lowers the amount of solution "carried out" of the bath.
Withdraw parts slowly. This keeps more of the solution in the tank.
Lower bath chemistry concentrations to the minimum effective concentration. An equal amount of drag-in will contaminate rinses less.
Use air knives, squeegees, or rollers on the part to keep excess in the process bath.
Apply wastewater treatment techniques
Reuse spent nitric baths for pH adjustment in wastewater treatment processes.
Reuse spent alkaline cleaning solutions for neutralization in wastewater treatment processes.
Separate cyanide bearing solutions for treatment.
Use electrolytic cyanide destruction (oxidation to carbon and nitrogen) and metal recovery.
Evaporate rinse water and neutralized process baths (except for chrome and cyanide baths)
Extend the life of your baths
Install monitoring equipment for plating bath concentrations to reduce overuse of acidic and basic chemicals.
Use ion exchange to treat incoming process water.
Use pure water to make up baths and for rinsing.
Use porous pot extraction of iron from hard chrome tanks.
Freeze-crystallize copper sulfate baths to purify them.
Freeze-crystallize to remove ferrous sulfate and reclaim spent sulfuric acid.
Plate unwanted metals onto dummy electrodes to purify tanks (electrolysis).
Swap chromium and cyanide for safer alternatives
Substitute boric sulfuric acid anodize for chromic acid anodize.
Substitute non-cyanide nickel-zinc in place of cyanide.
Fiberglass fabrication operations primarily emit styrene, a flammable liquid present in resins and gel coats with impacts to human health. Paints, thinners, solvents, and adhesives are also typically used throughout different fabrication processes.
Recommended P2 practices for fiberglass fabrication
Reduce overspray
Train staff to carry out spray techniques that reduce overspray.
Opt for virtual trainings when possible to limit the amount of product used even by trainers.
Swap products and equipment for safer alternatives
Replace catalysts (methyelthyl ketone (MEK)) with one of the following to reduce emissions:
Use benzoyl peroxide instead of MEK.
Use more cobalt, dimethyl aldehyde, and inert filler instead of MEK.
Replace airspray guns with air-assisted airless spray guns with high volume/low pressure (HVLP) guns.
Replace fiber lay-up with ABS-backed acrylic sheets.
Use resins that reduce emissions and product use, such as:
Resins with lower styrene content.
UV-cured vapor suppressed or vinyl toluene resins.
Other P2 practices for fiberglass fabrication
Heat resins to reduce viscosity.
Reduce laminate thickness to engineered minimum requirements.
Install these products or systems:
Closed-mold systems (such as resin transfer molding).
Impregnation systems.
Resin rollers.
Vacuum-mold or infusion systems.
Engineering controls that reduce product use (e.g., gelcoat timing equipment).
Heaters in production areas to improve process efficiency.
Metal manufacturing and fabrication includes the process of creating metal structures by cutting, bending, and assembling from raw metal materials. This can include steel, aluminum, copper, and other types of metals.
Recommended P2 practices for metal manufacturing and fabrication
Reduce raw material waste
Reduce scrap metal by revising the dimensions of raw material purchases to more closely match your cut pieces.
Consider using nesting software to help with this.
Extend the life of metalworking fluids
Choose a metalworking fluid that has a long life, is easy to recycle, and performs better within your process:
Use a product that can be disposed of as a used oil when spent.
Use chlorine-free products.
Limit the number of metalworking fluids you use on-site.
Monitor metalworking fluid concentrations in water and pH when in use to achieve better performance.
Inspect metalworking fluids daily.
Keep metalworking fluids cool.
Lessen contamination and extend the life of metalworking fluids and coolants:
Install equipment (such as bag and cartridge filters, centrifuges, or settling tanks) to separate contaminants.
Wash your hands prior to use to prevent microbial growth.
If you are interested in adding P2 practices to your business processes or are required to prepare a P2 plan, here is how you can get help and guidance:
