RE: (All) Waste Prevention Technology

["Callahan, Mike" <Mike.Callahan@jacobs.com>]

I'll throw in my two cents,

No technology "prevents" waste unless you limit your discussion to a
specific waste you are trying to prevent.  Powder coatings eliminate
solvent fumes and liquid wastes but they create dust and solid waste.
Solvent coatings can be air dried while powder coatings must be heated
to effect cure.  Powder coatings also require a much cleaner surface so
that cleaning wastes may be greater.

Every change has its trade-offs of benefits and disadvantages.  If we
could sum them all up and establish one numeric rating of "pollution",
then we could determine if a given technology actually prevented
pollution compared to another for a given unit of production.

Since there is no easy indicator, industry relys on the costs society
places on each raw material and waste stream.  In Europe at the turn of
the century, raw materials were scarce and labor was cheap.  That's why
so many inventions focused on ways to save material.  In the US, the
opposite was true.  Most inventions were labor saving devices because
labor was scarce.

Given a certain set of raw material, labor, energy, and disposal costs,
an engineer will seek out the optimum mix (i.e., the lowest cost per
unit of production).  Many of the P2 successes we are now finding are
not so much due to any new technology but are a response to changing
constraints and costs.  As waste treatment and disposal costs increase,
the optimum setting may allow for more usage of labor and/or energy to
offset these increased costs.

Just a few thoughts,

Mike.callahan@jacobs.com
> ----------
> From: 	rpojasek@sprynet.com[SMTP:rpojasek@sprynet.com]
> Sent: 	Friday, January 09, 1998 4:37PM
> To: 	p2tech@great-lakes.net
> Subject: 	Re: (All) Waste Prevention Technology
> 
> Many companies switched to powder paints to get away from the VOC and
> Title V 
> regs only to have large quantities of waste powder paiint to dispose
> of.  P2TECH 
> archives tell the story of the frustrating time these firms have had
> disposing 
> of these wastes.  I am not familiar with UV coatings.  How many firms
> have been 
> sold a solution to their air problem,only to be given a
> solid/hazardous waste 
> problem?    Are UV coatings free of worker health and safety problems?
> Have 
> these coatings taken over a large share of the market because they are
> "waste 
> free?"  Have they been developed by people in the industry as
> improvements to 
> the line or are they developed by people seeking to change the
> marketplace?  I 
> do not know if this is a good example.  Does anyone else know more
> about these 
> to help me believe that they are indeed waste PREVENTERS?
> 
> Bob Pojasek
> rpojasek@sprynet.com
>