Recycling manufacturing impact

In the industrial field, this separation technique has been used for purposes as diverse as the analysis of odour and taste problems in high-density polyethylene [93], contaminants in recycled high-impact polystyrene [94], benzene residues in recycled polyethylene terephthalate [95] and denture adhesives [96], residual toluene in medical plasters [97], and lipstick (for assignation of products to manufacturers) [98,99]. 

No matter where recycling occurs, either in-process or out-of-process, the total mass metric will necessarily be reduced by the amount of recycled materials in the process. It is therefore important not only to account for the reduced impacts from a life cycle viewpoint, but also to account for the environmental and resource usage impacts that result from recycling materials (e.g., distillation energy for solvent recovery). It should be noted that in most cases the benefits associated with the avoidance of manufacturing impacts tend to dwarf the energy and resources requirements for recycling the materials. 

The recycle weapons fuel cycle rehes on the reservoir of SWUs and yellow cake equivalents represented by the fissile materials in decommissioned nuclear weapons. This variation impacts the prereactor portion of the fuel cycle. The post-reactor portion can be either classical or throwaway. Because the avadabihty of weapons-grade fissile material for use as an energy source is a relatively recent phenomenon, it has not been fully implemented. As of early 1995 the United States had purchased highly enriched uranium from Russia, and France had initiated a modification and expansion of the breeder program to use plutonium as the primary fuel (3). AH U.S. reactor manufacturers were working on designs to use weapons-grade plutonium as fuel. 

A different concept is the idea of manufacturing at point of use rather than transporting materials. A simple and familiar example is the office water cooler. The majority that you see around use large bottles of water. These need to be transported and stored and the empty bottles recycled. More than 600 kT of bottled water were imported into the UK in 1999, creating a significant transport impact. The alternative is to chill and filter mains water on-site. The water needs to be filtered and purified to meet consumer perceptions and expectations. These systems use a mixture of purification techniques including advanced filters, UV-disinfection and silver-treated surfaces to give users the confidence they require. 

The Blue Angel eco-labels for leather may be awarded to the product leather which has been manufactured in an environmentally friendly way, from the health point of view does not have an adverse impact on the living environment and does not contain any hazardous substances that would significantly impede recycling. 

The production of material of a consistent quality is one of the major goals of development work. Quality problems in a product are identified by the constant monitoring and analysis of the output from the plant, using statistical process control techniques [D-4]. Some of these methods have already been mentioned in Section B, 3.4.2. The avoidance of product quality problems results in direct cost benefits and also brings about a reduction in the environmental impact of its manufacture. This is because material does not need to be reworked, recycled or sent for disposal. A reduction in the number of inferior quality batches of material leads to an increase in output from the plant. More material is produced for the same effort, with the added benefit that it can be consistently supplied to the sales warehouse or be used in consuming processes. 

Many applications, especially in electrochemistry, rely on the use of expensive and rare metals, like Pt, Li, and rare-earth elements. In the synthesis of micro- and me-soporous materials, costly structure-directing agents are sometimes applied. The reduction of catalyst mass and the prevention of waste formation, for instance by recycling of synthesis additives, are therefore highly topical research issues. The practicability of future technologies based on catalysis will depend on the availability of efficient catalysts composed of abundant elements prepared by robust, preferentially aqueous-based synthesis methods and the reduction of environmental impacts arising from catalyst manufacture. 

Graftech summarises the properties of Grafcell as corrosion free, low specific density, low contact resistance, high electrical conductivity, impact resistant, high thermal conductivity, recyclable, cost-effective manufacturing and thin. 

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