Waste minimization audits

You can order the following three Waste Minimization Audit Reports from NTIS. Or you can order the executive summaries from EPA/ATD/HWERL, 26 West St. Clair Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45268. 

Case Studies of Corrosive and Heavy Metal Waste Minimization Audit at a Specialty Steel Manufacturing Complex, (NTIS PB83-107180/GAR). 

M. Drabkin and E. Rissmann, Waste Minimization Audit Report Case Studies of Minimization of Mercury-bearing Wastes at a Mercury Cell Chloralkali Plant, Haz. Waste Eng. Res. Lab., Office of Res. and Deveh, U.S. Envir. Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1988. 

Once a waste-minimization program is set to be undertaken, the physical work starts with a series of detailed surveys of ongoing activities inside the industry, starting from raw material entering the premises to finished products and byproducts (including wastes). These audits can be termed as waste audits or waste-minimization audits. The principal intent of such audits is to critically assess various inputs, processes and outputs to find methods and practices for... 

For complex waste-minimization audit, it might be desirable hrst to make a preliminary or draft material balance and in the second step to evaluate and rehne it. However, in case of simple audit for small plants, the steps can be merged into one. 

Waste Minimization Audit Report Case Studies of Minimization of Solvent Waste from Parts Cleaning and from Electronic Capacitor Manufacturing Operations... 

Waste Minimization Audits at Generators of Corrosive and Heavy Metal Wastes... 

Audits may differ. Some concentrate on particular facets, e.g. waste minimization, energy conservation. A management audit will probably cover organizational structures and relationships, communications, procedures acceptance and implementation, training and quality assurance. A technical audit will consider the performance of plant and equipment, monitoring and inspection programmes. Items for inclusion in auditing are listed in Table 17.12. 

According to information from 3M as well as from numerous facility audits, the initiation of an effective waste reduction program begins with a strong management commitment. It is advisable to "work from the top down". The plan can be implemented beginning with a waste minimization assessment such as the one detailed in the EPA assessment manual (USEPA 1988). 

Table 1 Audit of Target Processes as per Objectives of Waste-minimization Program...

Waste auditing is as important as any other step in a waste-minimization or cleaner-production project. A proper waste audit should essentially provide a platform on which the rest of the project would be built. It should be a repository of all data and information that would be required to carry out the rest of the phases. As information is the strength so is a successful waste audit. 

The principal intent of a waste audit is to critically assess various inputs, processes, and outputs to find methods and practices for minimizing waste and reducing the resource consumption in a sustainable and environmentally benign way without compromising the commercial interest of the company. The waste audit phase would typically be a data collection and information synthesis phase that explores the current situation. Traditionally, an industrial waste audit also develops a list of waste minimization options and undertakes some preliminary technical and economic feasibility studies on the identified options to recommend about these opiions. 

Waste/Energy Audits for Waste/Energy Minimization... 

It is important to evaluate the waste generated in printed circuit board manufacturing in terms of the relative amounts of copper wasted from different processes in order to prioritize efforts at waste minimization. A waste audit should be performed to determine the types and amounts of waste generated. Figures 60.1 and 60.2 present two comparisons of copper-bearing wastes. The data presented are from two different printed circuit board fabrication facilities. 

Although most process safety audits are quite short (typically just a few days) it is still important to prepare a formal schedule. Not only does a schedule minimize problems such as two auditors wishing to speak to the same person at the same time, it also is a courtesy to the host company. Most people are very busy, and they do not want to waste time waiting for an auditor to show up. 

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