The John Roberts Company: Pollution Prevention Progress
Article provided by The John Roberts Company
June 1997 was time again for the John Roberts Company to renew its industrial wastewater permit. The company, a commercial printer of annual reports, brochures, catalogs, calendars, and posters, generates wastewater from several sources within its production. Among the major sources are spent "fountain solution" wetting agents used in lithography, spent fixer solution, and rinse water used in film processing.
Our previous MCES wastewater permit required that twice each year we conduct a series of outlet sampling at two points at our facility, both located outside the building itself and exposed to the weather. Each testing period meant hiring a professional environmental firm to run the tests at a cost of about $1,800 for each testing period. Then reports would have to be prepared, certified and sent into MCES.
Meanwhile, in the preceding permit period, the company had made several significant changes in how it managed the generation of any wastewater. Chief among the changes was the installation of advanced, state-of-the-art silver recovery units on each of three film processing lines. These recovery units continuously optimized silver recovery, more efficient than the pre-set units previously used for the task.
Additionally, the company made the decision to dramatically reduce rinse water usage on the film processing lines. The previous system required continuously flow-through of fresh rinse water for the purpose of washing the processed graphic arts films. The new system used several Water Mizers ® that re-circulate the rinse water, filtering it of any impurities. Water usage was cut to 20 percent of that used in the old system.
Lastly, as the company gained more experience with alcohol substitutes use in fountain solutions, the less frequently the fountain solution would "spoil" and need to be replaced. Now, fountain solution rarely needs to be discharged; it is simply used up in the printing process!
After providing this information to our MCES engineer along with our application for a permit renewal, and after review of past performance and test results, the company was happily informed that we were "hereby no longer required to obtain an industrial discharge permit."
Wow! Our pollution prevention efforts paid off in an unexpected manner. Instead of having to conduct semi-annual discharge testing, we could devote our limited resources to additional environmentally beneficial projects. And we could celebrate the fact that we had successfully lessened our total environmental impact.