INTERNATIONAL CLEANER PRODUCTION INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE

CASE STUDY # 217

1. Headline: Reduction of waste and toxic chemical raw

materials at an auto repair shop.

2. Background: See Description of Cleaner Production

Application

3. Cleaner Production Principle: raw material substitution,

good housekeeping, process modifications, internal recycling

4. Description of Cleaner Production Application: Car repair

shops do not run traditional production processes. Their

product is a service and the environmental impacts are related

to the products used. The case study, carried out in 1992,

focused on purchasing practices, routines and waste treatment.

The import department has 16 employees, and manage 13,000 new

cars per year. The following option were pursued:

1) reduced consumption of and substitution of less toxic raw

materials via:

-Not using products which contain chloro-organic substances,

strong aromatic solvents and isocyanates, and changing to

products that do not contain solvents or have a low content of

solvents.

-Changing routines and working operations which thereby reduce

the overall raw material consumption.

2) Ordinary waste was reduced by reusing transport packaging.

In addition a programme was started with suppliers to reduce

the waste from packaging. Sorting of paper and cardboard has

started and there was a reduction in the consumption of toxic

chemicals. There was a focused effort to reduce the use of

spray cans, which are classified as a special waste. Source

sorting of waste made it possible to reduce treating and

recovering of the material.

3) Reduction of environmental harmful substances in waste water

was achieved through the choice of degreasing agent but

demanded investments in technical equipments. The equipment

chosen can separate water streams and recover the oil.

The import department's main activities are to make new cars

ready for distribution to car dealers, undercoating and

rebuilding cars. Ordinary repairs are scarce. There is little

concern about environment impacts from these activities. The

focus has been on health injuries from solvents.

In general, the choice of chemical products has been made on

the basis of price and quality, and not with respect to

environmental impacts. This has lead the use of environmental

harmful chemicals. There are about 30-35 chemical products in

daily use. In general, there is a low consumption of chemical

products, but the products that are used are concentrated.

About one third of the products are in the YL-group 3 and

higher. (The amount of air which is needed to dilute the fumes

from 1 libre substance to a concentration which is acceptable

to work in). About one third of the products contain

chlorinated solvents, allergenic substances or substances which

can diffuse through the skin.

The operations which use these chemicals are degreasing of new

cars, undercoating, and gluing of foamed plastic (in the

rebuilding of cars). About 6000 liters of degreasing liquid are

used per year. Less than half (45%) are solvent-based

degreasing liquids. Others are alkaline degreasers. The choice

of degreasers is dependent on which kind of wax on the new

cars. Alkaline degreasers are usually more expensive in use

than solvent based degreasers, but are used when possible

because they create a better working environment. The

degreasing process takes between 10-15 minutes per car, and the

consumption of degreasing liquid is about 2.5 liters per car.

To undercoat cars about 3000 liters per year is used per year.

That is about 6-8 liters per car.

The consumption of solvent-based spray glue to glue plastic

foam used in rebuilding station wagons, vans and busses is

about 100 liters per year. After the review, the use of

chemicals was reduced by about 30%, by lowering the number of

chemical products to 10-15 products. For all of the chemical

products in YL-group 3 and higher, there are alternatives in

YL-group 00-1, which means a relatively low concentration of

solvents. The savings represented 70-98 percent reduction in

occupational air requirement.

Other major wastes include: car batteries, waste oil, brake

fluid and antifreeze solution which are treated as special

waste. They were not separated and they all went into the same

waste oil barrel. All together, this is about 500-600 liters

(antifreeze solution 70 liters and brake fluid 20 liters). Used

diesel filters and oil filters were drained for oil, but not

compressed before they were thrown away as ordinary waste. The

same was true for spray cans (about 250 cans per year). Other

types of waste were treated as ordinary waste, about 1.6 tons

per month. The waste consisted mainly of cardboard and plastics

which comes from packaging of parts used in connection with

rebuilding cars. The cost of landfilling the waste is about

33,000 NOK per year. Source sorting contributed to the

reduction in the amount of waste dumped by about 10 tons a

year. In addition the reuse of packaging by 10%, by returning

packaging to the supplier, they could reduce the amounts of

waste to the waste dump by 50%.

All the water effluents from the operations go through an oil

separator, which is drained four times a year.

The purchasing routines were changed to systematize purchases.

They are aimed at further reducing the number of chemical

products and to substitute less environmental harmful

chemicals. The following guidelines were used: -Lower YL-groups

and reorganization of the physical work space.

-Not using aromatic and chloro organic solvents. -Not using

products which contain substances that can diffuse through the

skin, or are allergy or cancer causing.

The change in the purchasing routines reduced the number of

suppliers to 3-5 from 10 today.

5. Economics: Improved purchasing routines, fewer products and

lower consumption, minimize the waste and recovering of waste

will give economic and environmental advantages.

Source sorting of paper waste for recovering can reduce the

yearly costs for trashing waste with about 12,000 NOK, based on

a reduction in waste to the waste dump of 10 tons.

A compressor was used to compress the waste paper to reduce the

volume of the paper. The import department estimates that they

need to empty the container four times a year. This gives a

yearly net costs of 1200 NOK, including an income of 80 NOK/ton

for the delivered paper.

The costs of landfilling will increase. Systems for source

sorting and recovering of special waste exist on the market.

The costs to introduce this system in a car-repairshop, are

about 10,000-12,000 NOK per year (fixed cost), which covers

rent, containers, transportation and reporting. In addition

there is a treatment fee which is 5-6 NOK/kg waste on an

average.

Because the amount of special waste is small, other cheaper

alternatives were also evaluated. It was possible to make their

own sorting system and to transport special waste to a

receiving plant themselves.

6. Advantages: In addition to the economic benefits outlined

above there are improved public relations. The improved

environment and achieved environmental gains were used in

marketing the company and the car repair shops.

7. Constraints: Reduction in the use of packaging to minimize

waste, required producers and suppliers to have two sizes of

their products, one for the commercial consumers and one for

the private consumers. It has been difficult to find a solution

in the short run

8. Contacts:

State Pollution Authority,

Att: Uno Abrahamsen

Postboks 8100 Dep.,

0032 OSLO, Norway

TEL: +47 22 57 34 00

Harald A. Moller AS,

Att: Arne Svarverud

Postboks 2, Korsvoll,

0808 OSLO, Norway

Oestfold Research Foundation

P.O.Box 276

N-1601 Fredrikstad

Phone: +47 693419OO

9. Keywords: 9513 repairs of automobiles, chloride waste,

solvents, solid waste, degreasing wastes

10. Reviewer's Comment's: This case study was translated from

Norwegian and submitted to UNEP IE on behalf of the Norwegian

State Pollution Control Authority by Stiftelsen

Ostfoldforskning in February 1994. They were reviewed and

edited by UNEP IE in July 1995. They have not undergone a

formal quality review.