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.