Cleaner Production PDF
Cleaner Production PDF
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
Focus Strategy
Eliminate Pollution
Prevention
Reduce
Waste
Reuse
Management
Recycle
1.3.1 Eliminate
Eliminating the need to use materials (particularly harmful products such as
cleaning agents) can greatly reduce operating costs and reduce the potential
harm to the environment, for example, by substituting hazardous materials with
less harmful alternatives.
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
1.3.2 Reduce
The next step is to minimise the use of all materials in the process. This can
include reducing errors in batch preparation, optimising cleaning operations to
reduce the volume of water used and turning off equipment that is not in use.
1.3.3 Reuse
There are many opportunities to reuse ‘waste products’ in the foundry industry.
This will reduce the demand for raw materials and the cost of treatment and
disposal. It may be possible to reuse sand internally or to reclaim waste heat
from one process for use in another.
1.3.4 Recycle
Are the wastes identified by your assessment really ‘wastes’? Can some of
these be reclaimed through simple treatment processes that enables them to
be recycled on-site? Other by-products that cannot be used on site may be
recycled off-site. In these cases there may be the potential to sell recyclable
items and also save by the avoiding disposal costs.
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
3.1.1 Support
Companies are more likely to succeed when:
• management support the program for Cleaner Production / waste
minimisation.
• top management drive change by communicating the benefits of Cleaner
Production to all staff.
• sufficient time and resources have been allocated to achieve the Cleaner
Production objectives.
• the company has a challenging Environmental Policy that encourages
source reduction and continuous improvement.
3.1.2 Acceptance
Companies are more likely to succeed when:
• staff are aware of Cleaner Production.
• staff understand the economic and environmental importance of reducing
waste.
• staff understand and support their role in achieving the objectives of the
program.
3.1.3 Planning
Companies are more likely to succeed when:
• the Cleaner Production project is formalised and well planned.
• the project has an established framework, with a team leader, team members
and clear roles and responsibilities.
• when the budget, timeframe, goals and success criteria are clearly defined
and measurable.
• when progress is regularly reviewed and drive is maintained (by top
management, the CP team leaders and everyone in the company).
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
3.1.4 Knowledge
Companies are more likely to succeed when:
• the project is based on good information. This can be gained from Cleaner
Production / environmental or efficiency audits for energy, water, trade
waste, materials etc..
• the company can set reasonable priorities based on the full value and impact
of waste generated by the company.
• the procedures for identifying, evaluating and implementing Cleaner
Production options are well known, supported and widely practised
throughout the organisation.
• staff have sufficient training in correct waste minimisation procedures and
know what to do with each type of waste (e.g. laminated signs posted around
the site).
• staff know what to do with waste in the case of an accident / emergency.
• the company has an effective and timely materials accounting system in
place - integrating purchasing, handling, inventory, process control and
sales systems - to accurately track resource use, waste and produce
variance reports (i.e. that compare actual and standard resource use and
waste).
• orientation programs for new employees include Cleaner Production.
3.1.5 Skills
Companies are more likely to succeed when key staff have the necessary skills
to:
• implement appropriate waste measuring and monitoring systems.
• undertake Cleaner Production assessments / audits.
• identify resources and product losses (emissions, wastewater and solid
waste).
• identify Cleaner Production improvement opportunities.
• evaluate options (economic and non-economic analysis).
• implement viable options.
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
4. Pre-Assessment
The pre-assessment is designed to give an overview of the organisation. This
involves collecting or developing some basic process information that allows
your company to set the broad scope of the Cleaner Production project. This
information will also form the basis of the assessment and evaluation phases.
The assessment can be done away from the process area by using process
flow diagrams but it is often better to physically walk through the area as this
will provide lots of cues (e.g. waste on the floor, sounds of air leaks etc.) and
allow you to talk to process staff.
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
4.1 Steps
1. Form a team for the Walk Though Assessment. Include people who
understand the process and some from outside the process who might
question things that those close to the process take for granted.
2. Schedule an appropriate time for the assessment - you may need one to
two hours depending on the scale of the operation.
3. Start by reviewing the process (use a process flow diagram) to ensure
everyone on the team understands the key process steps.
4. Walk through the process considering all aspects of waste, resource use
and efficiency.
5. Record all the waste problems and improvement ideas you identify.
6. Prioritise the problems and opportunities. Use this information to plan the
assessment phase.
The purpose of this process is to identify the range of issues and opportunities
facing the company and begin to assess the priority areas that are likely to
have a significant positive impact on the company’s performance. This
information should be used to plan the Assessment phase and set broad
priorities. Don’t eliminate areas from the assessment at this stage. More
detailed and quantitative analysis in the assessment phase (e.g. mass
balances, monitoring and measuring programs) will provide a more systematic
approach to targeting your improvement actions.
The following checklist may provide a useful approach for thinking about the
key issues and recording problems and opportunities that are identified in the
process. This is a very broad checklist designed to flag major issues in the
short amount of time typically available for the assessment. More exhaustive
checklists are provided in the Cleaner Production Checklist series. You may
prefer to use these (and any other ideas you have) to develop a checklist that
is more relevant to your operation.
Questions Notes
(Problems Identified)
Inventory Issues
Are products stored and handled to
minimise breakages, spoilage etc.?
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
Questions Notes
(Problems Identified)
Do errors in the materials make-up
area and procedures create waste?
Process Issues
Are there any drips or leaks in the
area?
Housekeeping Issues
Are there any obvious signs of poor
housekeeping practices?
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
Questions Notes
(Problems Identified)
Are there any methods available to
improve cleaning practices?
Staff Issues
Do the operating procedures lead to
the generation of waste? Can they
be changed?
Waste Issues
How are wastes removed from the
process area?
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
Questions Notes
(Problems Identified)
How is waste removed from the site?
Marketing Issues
What are the product specifications
and customer requirements? How do
these impact on the creation of
waste? Can they be changed?
Are there any potential marketing
benefits to be gained from our
Cleaner Production program?
Broad Issues
Can we suggest any changes to the
company’s overall policies and
systems that would help implement
Cleaner Production in this area?
Are there any long term changes to
equipment, facilities, markets that
should be considered?
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
5. The Assessment
The assessment phase involves the collection of data that enables you to
evaluate the environmental performance, production efficiency and wastes
generated by the company. Information should be collected at the company
level to allow overall performance to be measured, for targets to be set and for
progress to be monitored. Process information is also necessary to identify the
sources of problems and opportunities for improvement.
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
The materials balance can be developed broadly for the entire operation. At the
process level, the analysis will be more meaningful and allow better decisions
to be made. The level of detail should be dictated by the importance of the
decision. If company wide material balance indicates significant opportunities
for improvement then a more detailed analysis may be justified.
In order to develop priorities, this resource balance should include the volume
of the material, the nature of the material (e.g. potential risks) and the full
economic value of the material to the company. This will help to target the
areas that have the most significant environmental risk and represent the most
significant economic cost to the company.
If it proves to be very difficult to undertake a materials balance it may point to
opportunities to improve process control and materials accounting practices.
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
The other costs can be assigned to individual waste streams based on their
contribution to various costs. This could be calculated by volume (e.g. waste
accounts for 2% of total material intake, therefore, the full cost should include
2% of production, cleaning and maintenance costs). There may be other
methods of allocating costs (e.g. risk based) that may be appropriate.
Step Two - estimate the cost per unit of waste
Dividing the total cost of each waste stream by the total quantity generated in
the period will provide an estimate of the unit cost of the waste. In the example
above, the unit cost for waste metal is $4000 / tonne.
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
4. What assumptions are you making? Just because this is always how it has
been done doesn’t mean it is the only way.
5. What are the rules, procedures, and guidelines that affect the area? Do
these cause unnecessary waste?
6. Where does the waste go and what problems does this cause? Is there
anything else that could be done to this waste?
7. What can you do today? The best solution may take a long time to
implement. This doesn’t mean something couldn’t be done in the meantime.
What is the simplest solution to the problem that you could implement
today?
8. No matter what you do someone will be there to say ‘it can’t be done’. What
negative reactions can you expect? What excuses could be made to stop
progress? What are the impediments to minimising waste? How can you
overcome these?
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
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Cleaner Production Manual for the Queensland Foundry Industry November 1999
For example: Installing drip guards may cost $500 and involve no on-going
costs. Cost savings amount to $50 per week or $2600 a year.
Capital costs = $500
Annual costs = $0
Annual benefits = $2600
Payback = $500 / ($2600 - 0) * 12 = 2.3 Months
Note: If you only require a fairly simple analysis or if accurate estimates of
costs and benefits are not available, use the broad value ranges at the
bottom of the table for each item.
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