Office Of Waste Reduction Services
State of Michigan
Departments of Commerce and Natural Resources
December 1989
#8008A
The practice of waste exchange is not new. However, many companies which have informally participated in exchanges of materials may not be aware that this service is available on a formal level. This important method of waste reduction can now be explored through directories or listings of materials on both a regional and national scale.
A waste exchange is a program which promotes the use of one company's waste as another's raw material. It is an information clearinghouse for available by-products, virgin products and other forms of unneeded industrial materials.
A waste exchange identifies both producers and markets for solid and hazardous waste materials.
Some examples of the types of materials successfully exchanged include:
A waste exchange matches companies having unneeded, usable materials with companies that have need for the materials. This is done by publishing lists of both available and wanted materials/wastes. Listings describe the material/ waste, quantity and form available, and indicate geographic location. Names of the suppliers of the materials are not given in the listing. Potential users may find out who is offering the listed materials/wastes by telephoning the waste exchange, mailing an information request form or by interrogation of an on-line computer information network. The request form is mandatory if the listing company has requested that information be confidential.
The potential user must contact the company offering the material to obtain more specific chemical/physical information and to arrange for purchase or exchange and transportation. Waste exchange services do not take part in company-to-company discussions or the actual shipment of the materials.
Waste exchanges usually charge a nominal fee for listing materials and for providing the name of donor companies to potential users.
One company noticed a Material Wanted listing for virgin polyol resins/ polyol pigments in the Great Lakes/Midwest Waste Exchange. It had hundreds of gallons of these unused materials, which it gave to the listing company at no cost. By doing so, it saved about $26,000 in avoided disposal costs. The other company got needed raw materials for just the costs of transportation.
Another company was using highly purified sulfuric acid as a raw material in its circuit board manufacturing process. Waste sulfuric acid was produced as a by-product. The company located a metal finishing company that could use lower purity sulfuric acid in its pickling operation through a waste exchange. An exchange of 1800 gallons took place and, as a result, the circuit board manufacturer saved almost $6000 in disposal costs. The metal finishing company received a needed process chemical at a fraction of the cost of virgin material.
Many waste exchanges in industry result from direct company-to-company contacts. When these contacts do not exist, a regional waste exchange provides both a convenient and a more certain method of matching donors and users. Regional waste exchanges provide information on many products and companies covering large geographic areas, thereby increasing the opportunities for exchanges.
The waste exchange service operating in Michigan is called the Great Lakes/Midwest..........Exchange and is administered b...............systems Institute, 400 An Grand Rapids, Michigan.......................3262.
Waste............................................. Exchange.......................................... er,.......................................ENVIROX.
User,.......................................to the public...........waste no..... additional fees for listing ...........Annual subscriptions are currently $3.....will,1989). On-line computer use is billed on a per-minute basis. The Great Lakes/ Midwest Exchange covers:
Efforts are being made to combine all North American waste exchange listings in one common data base. An international exchange system is another possibility. At the present time, several state and regional exchanges maintain separate data bases which may have listings that are not included in the Great Lakes/ Midwest Exchange data base. For example:
| California Waste Exchange | (Sacramento) | 916/324-1807 |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian Waste Materials Exchange | (Mississauga,Ont.) | A16/822-4111 |
| Indiana Waste Exchange | (Indianapolis) | 317/634-2142 |
| Industrial Material Exchange Service | (Springfield, IL) | 217/782-0450 |
| Montana Industrial Waste Exchange | (Helena) | 406/442-2405 |
| Northeast Industrial Waste Exchange | (Syracuse, NY) | 315/422-6572 |
| RENEW, Texas Water Commission | (Austin) | ##2/463-7773 |
| Southeast Waste Exchange | (Charlotte, NC) | 704/547-2307 |
| Southern Waste Exchange | (Tallahassee, FL) | 904/644-5516 |
Yes, if you have surplus, obsolete, off-specification and other unneeded materials or your manufacturing processes are not dependent upon the use of virgin materials. Waste exchanges can result in cost savings to both donor and receiver. The donor avoids the costs of disposal and the receiver obtains raw material at substantially lower price per pound or gallon. Furthermore, waste exchanges benefit the environment. There is less pressure on dwindling landfill capacity and a net savings of the energy that would have been required to produce the raw materials that have been replaced.
Developed by: The Office of Waste Reduction Services and Resource Recycling Systems, Inc.
Funded by: The Clean Michigan Fund,
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
For more information on waste reduction for businesses, contact the Office of Waste Reduction Services, P.O. Box 30004, Lansing, MI 48909; (517) 335-1178.
Last Updated: January 8, 1996