The Most Effective Waste Treatment Options

1041 Words3 Pages

What are the most effective waste treatment options prior to discharge to receiving bodies of water or the local wastewater treatment facility?
Paint manufacturers, to include Sherwin-Williams, produce a variety of different paint types and colors, including both organic solvent-borne and water-borne paints. Each type and color of paint is manufactured in a separate batch, and all manufacturing equipment is generally cleaned between batches to prevent contamination (figure 1-1). This equipment cleaning process is the largest source of waste from paint manufacturing and can account for up to 80% of a paint manufacturer’s waste stream (WMRC, 1992). These wastewaters are generated by the equipment cleaning, surface preparation, and the rinsing of a surface after paint removal. Paint-related wastewaters can contain organic solvents, heavy metals, and other toxic materials used in paint formulations, surface preparation, and equipment cleaning. These are just a few of the many types of waste produced during the paint lifecycle (figure 1-2).
Because of the Clean Water Act of 1972, most point sources of wastewater that have the potential to be discharged to a waterway require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) federal or similar state issued of permit (EPA, 2012). Even with this permit, pretreatment of wastewater, prior to discharge, is generally necessary to keep waste at a legal exposure limit. To reduce the amount of waste contaminate prior to discharge various types of wastewater treatment activities are performed. These include methods such as settling to remove paint sludge and basic chemical neutralization. Another method is to reduce solids in wastewater by means of coagulation and flocculation using fer...

... middle of paper ...

...tates Environmental Protection Agency : http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/home.cfm?program_id=45
GEA. (2013). Water Treatment in Paint Shops. Retrieved from GEA Westfalia Separator Group Homepage: http://www.westfalia-separator.com/fileadmin/Media/PDFs/Brochures/environmental-technology-EN-ET-13-01-0001.pdf
PaintCare Inc. (2013). About PaintCare. Retrieved from PaintCare Web Site: http://www.paintcare.org/
Sherwin-Williams. (2013). Resuing As Well As Recycling. Retrieved from Sherwin-Williams Environmental Web Site: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/f49fd66f#/f49fd66f/54
Siegel, R. (2011, June 30). Sherwin-Williams Spreads Sustainability Farther with New "Green" Paint. Retrieved from TriplePundit Web site: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/f49fd66f#/f49fd66f/54
WMRC. (1992). Paint Waste Reduction and Disposal Options. Champaign: Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Open Document