Ecology Experts Assist Craft Brew Alliance to Produce Better Beer with a Better Bottom Line

By Joanne Lind, communications, Hazardous Waste & Toxics Reduction

Most breweries are focused on getting product out the door. They have little time to consider what their wastes are costing them.

Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) is trying a new approach with the help of Ecology’s Technical Resources for Engineering Efficiency (TREE) team. CBA’s sustainability manager Julia Person asked us to assist her team in cutting waste and increasing efficiency. The goal was to eliminate as much waste as possible, while becoming more productive and continuing to produce great libations.

CBA is the merger of leading Pacific Northwest craft brewers: Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, and Kona Brewing Company. Together they aim to preserve and grow one-of-a-kind craft beers and brands. The TREE team focused on the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville. The facility’s expansive grounds host many events and include a tasting room and a full-service restaurant. Redhook wanted to improve their solid waste handling and recycling.

Cutting waste and increasing energy efficiency saves money

Our TREE team visited Redhook several times (at no charge to the company) and suggested a number of ways to reduce waste and save money. One was to carefully separate bottles, cans, and other recyclables from solid wastes coming out of the restaurant.

But the brewery also had high surcharges on their sewer bill due to excessive organic material in their discharge. Breweries struggle with this type of waste because their discharges contain expired beer product, spent grain liquids, and other brewery liquids. The trick was figuring out how to better manage these wastes. We recommended diverting spent yeast, grains, and liquids from the sewer, and instead providing them to local dairy farms for cattle feed. This got the organic materials out of their discharges and ended the high sewer surcharge.

Ecology audit identifies waste

To help Redhook with energy costs, the TREE team conducted an audit of machinery on their production line. We used an infrared device to find compressor air leaks and motors not functioning efficiently. The air leak audit found 48 leaks costing the company about $19,000 each year in electricity. The motor function audit found 18 motors and 20 gear boxes running hotter than normal.

Fixing these problems will save the brewery about 216,531 kilowatt hours per year and cut more than 17,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions - in addition to the money saved.

Redhook boasts impressive results. So far, they:

• Reduced the costs of both sewer and electricity.
• Eliminated the water-soap mixture used to move bottles in favor of a liquid-free bottling line. This is expected to bring an even larger drop in water usage and sewer fees.
• Educated others by hosting a workshop to share what they learned. They also helped other breweries connect with resources throughout the Northwest Region, such as our TREE team and the Pollution Prevention Resource Center.

CBA is applying the improved practices they learned from Ecology’s TREE team to their other brewery facilities. And they’re discovering more improvements and innovations on their own. They realize cutting waste and conserving water and energy are big money savers and good for business. Beer drinkers can toast to that!

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Janicki Industries scores triple win: A P2 success story

By Mariann Cook-Andrews, Community Outreach and Environmental Education Specialist, Hazardous Waste & Toxics Reduction Program

Janicki workers apply a “peel ply” to a tool surface before

infusing the part with resin.

Janicki Industries, a composite fabrication company, scored a triple win on the preventing pollution (P2) scoreboard in 2013. They cut their dangerous waste by 20,000 pounds, saving $50,000 in the process, and improving their employees’ working conditions!

“It’s a lot cleaner environment for employees,” said Darren Wilson, Janicki’s Environmental Health and Safety Officer.

Janicki produces large-scale, high-precision molds and prototypes in its Hamilton and Sedro-Woolley facilities. They make templates in the Sedro-Woolley shop and use those templates to produce final products from carbon-fiber fabric and resin at the Hamilton shop.

Lower styrene emissions from process changes

Janicki lowered their styrene emissions at the Sedro-Woolley shop by switching to low-pressure impingement-spray equipment for resin.

Previously they used high pressure and a single nozzle for spraying. That pressure wasted material because it created an atomized “mist” of resin around the spray stream. Now, two nozzles using lower pressure “impinge” the spray streams into each other. This creates a “flow coat” without the wasted mist.

The vacuum-infusion system they use for some products also helps the air quality. Workers lay the carbon-fiber fabric on the template, then bag and seal the entire item. A vacuum pump sucks epoxy resin into the bag and throughout the fabric. The only emission is the exhaust from the vacuum pump.

“It looks like a shop where they’re [just] putting tools together. You’d hardly notice that they’re using resins,” said Wilson.

Shop towels dropped from two drums per day to one drum per week

Workers use hundreds of shop towels for cleaning the tools and products. At one time Janicki was filling two 55-gallon drums with solvent-soaked disposable rags every day. This was all dangerous waste they had to manage and dispose of at considerable cost. Switching to reusable rags has cut the waste to one drum per week. An industrial laundry cleans and returns the reusable rags.

Special orders can create more waste

The company also reduced their hazardous waste by instituting a better system for buying and storing materials. Janicki is a custom shop, where customers set the specifications. Each job is a special order and may use special supplies. They frequently had to dispose of off-specification materials. The materials also have a shelf life and may expire before the company can use them up. This added to the company’s dangerous waste. Their new system is “still a work in progress,” according to Wilson, but it is already helping the company cut back on the amount of dangerous waste they create.

Impressive? Yes, and you can find more inspiring stories on Ecology’s Pollution Prevention Success Stories web pages.

Could your business benefit from a visit with our Toxics Reduction staff? They can help with your pollution prevention (P2) efforts. Contact your regional office.

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IDEX goes from large to small generator and $aves thousands: A P2 success story

How waste designation saved IDEX in disposal costs

By Erin Jeffries, Community Outreach and Environmental Education Specialist, Hazardous Waste & Toxics Reduction Program

IDEX Health and Science in Oak Harbor, WA

The company

IDEX Health and Science is a global manufacturer. Their facility in Oak Harbor, Washington, makes products under the Upchurch Scientific and ISMATEC brands. They make fluidics – the tiny tubes, pumps, fittings, and filters used in labs and medical facilities. These products must meet precise standards.  

Know if a waste is dangerous – Designation changes everything

Businesses are required to “designate” their wastes. Designation assigns each type of waste a code. It helps determine whether a waste is considered dangerous and how it must be managed.

Correctly designating their wastes saved IDEX about $2,500 annually.

IDEX already reduced pollution by switching to a non-halogenated coolant, but they were disposing of it as dangerous, persistent waste. During a routine inspection, an Ecology dangerous waste inspector suggested testing the waste to help designate correctly.

IDEX followed up and tested their spent coolant. In this case, they needed to analyze it with a fish bioassay test. They discovered that it’s not considered dangerous waste, which saved disposal costs for 1,200 pounds of spent coolant per year.

The company later decided to look at their spent citric acid waste. Citric acid is used to protect stainless steel in their products from rust. Using the designation process, they discovered that their spent citric acid was not considered dangerous waste. This reduced their waste generation by 1,100 pounds per year.

Equipment improvements gain efficiencies

IDEX uses a saline solution in the equipment that cuts stainless steel tubing. A new kind of equipment requires only one percent of the saline compared to what they were using. Upgrading the cutting equipment reduced the saline waste by 1,600 pounds per year. As a result, they no longer have to dispose spent saline as dangerous waste.

The new equipment requires less water, so the upgrade also cut most of the water used in the process.

Results

Reducing dangerous waste meant big results. IDEX was able to move from being a Large Quantity Generator of Dangerous Waste to a Medium Quantity Generator in 2005, then to a Small Quantity Generator in 2012. This means IDEX now has lower disposal costs and they save on their Pollution Prevention Planning Fee. They also have fewer regulations to follow – which reduces waste management costs.

Ecology Toxics Reduction Engineer Dan Ferguson said, “IDEX Oak Harbor put a lot of effort into reducing waste generation through research, testing, pilot projects, and working with its employees to find solutions.”

Reductions of dangerous waste per year:

• 1,000 pounds spent coolant
• 1,100 pounds spent citric acid
• 1,600 pounds spent saline

Annual cost savings:

• $4,290 in waste disposal
• Reduced regulatory requirements, reducing staff time spent on waste management

Could your business benefit from a visit with our Toxics Reduction staff? They can help with your pollution prevention (P2) efforts. Contact your regional office.

For more P2 success stories, visit Ecology's website.

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Moses Lake Industries saves millions by shrinking waste: A P2 success story

By Erin Jeffries, Community Outreach and Environmental Education Specialist, Hazardous Waste & Toxics Reduction Program

Participating in the Department of Ecology's Pollution Prevention (P2) Program, Moses Lake Industries, Inc. (MLI) achieved several million dollars in savings over the last five years through waste reduction, on-site treatment, recycling, water reuse, and efficiency improvements.

The company

Moses Lake Industries, Inc.

Named after its hometown of Moses Lake, Washington, MLI specializes in producing ultra-high purity chemicals for the semiconductor industry. MLI products are used worldwide and have been recognized for their high quality. The company has received multiple product quality awards from customers for ten years in a row.

How they achieved results

In 2009, MLI began to treat their corrosive hazardous waste following the Department of Ecology’s Treatment by Generator guidance. Neutralizing the waste and evaporating its residue reduces the dangerous waste’s volume by up to 90 percent. Treating waste on site prevents potential pollution off site.

MLI also conserves water. They reuse plastic totes and drums returned from their customers, which are rinsed with high purity water before refilling. Rinsing generates a significant amount of corrosive wastewater. The company started a water reduction program that eliminates half of the dangerous wastewater.

Methanol is a byproduct of their manufacturing process. They use the methanol as fuel for their process boiler, reducing the need to purchase propane fuel. Surplus methanol has also been sold for use as a source material in the biodiesel industry.

In 2010, MLI jump-started their recycling program and was able to redirect 20 percent of solid waste to recycling. In the past three years, they have been able to recycle 50 percent of solid waste. They recycle a wide variety of products, including steel, aluminum, copper, plastic (like drums, totes, pallets, and sample bottles), paper, cardboard, e-waste, batteries, and bulbs.

In 2013, the company launched a pilot program to study the feasibility of using products that do not meet their high purity standard. The study explored possibly manufacturing copper oxide, a dry raw material used in many industries. The pilot was successful, and the results will be used to determine the economic benefit of a full-scale operation. One significant potential is the process could be used to turn waste materials into a marketable copper oxide product.

Less dangerous waste means less risk for workers

Keeping dangerous waste around means workers could be exposed to harmful chemicals. MLI is dedicated to plant safety, so they set annual goals for waste reduction, energy efficiency, and air quality.

Certain businesses are required to prepare Pollution Prevention Plans for voluntarily reducing their hazardous substance use and dangerous waste generation. MLI sets an excellent example for other businesses by following through with their pollution prevention opportunities.

Ecology recognized MLI’s efforts in 2003 with an Environmental Excellence Award for reducing toxic air pollution.

Managing dangerous waste is expensive. Moses Lake Industries’ culture of waste reduction saved them millions. Is your business next?

Help is available! To consult with Ecology’s Pollution Prevention experts about how to reduce waste at your Washington business, contact your regional office.

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Toxic releases increase in Washington while some industries reduce emissions

By Erika Holmes, Hazardous Waste & Toxics Reduction Program

Releases of toxic chemicals in Washington increased in 2012, according to data reported annually to the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology). The data is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report. Ecology works with reporting facilities to find ways to reduce toxic releases.

The annual TRI report provides key information about toxic releases to air, land, and water in our communities. Most of these releases are planned and managed, though some are accidental. TRI is a publicly available database of detailed information on nearly 650 chemicals disposed or otherwise released by nearly 21,000 industrial and federal facilities nationwide.

Washington's 2012 Report

In 2012, 310 Washington facilities reported releasing 19.6 million pounds of toxic chemicals to air, land, or water. Half of these releases were to air. Toxic releases in Washington increased 1.1 percent from 2011 to 2012.

 

More facilities are managing their waste on-site instead of disposing of it off-site. Washington facilities recovered 60.5 million pounds of waste for on-site energy, increasing 356 percent from 2011. On-site recycling and treatment also increased, reducing the pollution, cost of transportation, and risk of spills associated with moving waste off-site.

“Although we never want to see an increase in toxic releases, we are encouraged that some facilities reduced emissions through process improvement,” said K Seiler, who manages Ecology’s Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program. “Ecology works hard to create meaningful partnerships with industries to help them reduce or eliminate the use of toxics, often at a savings to the business.”

Two facilities stood out for cutting their toxic releases:

• Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) reduced ammonia emissions to the air at its Aberdeen plant by more than half.  SPI, a wood products company, generates renewable electricity by burning wood waste from its sawmill to power steam turbines. To reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, the company injects ammonia into the exhaust gases. Too much ammonia is itself a challenge, however, so in 2010 SPI began installing monitoring equipment to ensure it is using just the right amount. The new equipment allowed SPI to cut its ammonia emissions from 87,377 pounds in 2011 to 42,825 pounds in 2012.
• Tesoro Refining & Marketing installed emissions control equipment on their stacks, decreasing sulfuric acid aerosols reaching the air. By doing so, the company reduced those emissions from 158,095 pounds in 2011 to 120,091 pounds in 2012.

Ecology leads the state’s efforts to reduce toxics in our air, land, and water by:

• Providing free technical assistance to help facilities prevent pollution.
• Encouraging the use of safer alternatives to harmful chemicals.
• Promoting green chemistry.

To learn more about Washington’s 2012 TRI data, please visit Ecology’s 2012 Washington Toxics Release Inventory web page. You may also contact Ecology’s TRI Coordinator, Diane Fowler at (360) 407-6171.  

Find out more about toxic chemicals in your community – it’s your right to know!

You can access EPA’s data about releases of toxic chemicals to better understand the types and amounts of releases and the potential related risks in your community. TRI is an especially important data source for environmental releases of chemicals of particular concern, such as mercury, dioxins, and other persistent, bio-accumulative, toxic (PBT) chemicals. 

Access TRI data online

Envirofacts provides access to TRI and other EPA databases that contain information about environmental activities that can affect air, water, and land anywhere in the United States. Use Envirofacts to learn more about these environmental activities in an area or generate maps of environmental information.

TRI Explorer is a searchable database of TRI data to help communities identify facilities and chemical releases or other waste management activities that warrant further study and analysis. Combined with hazard and exposure information, the TRI Explorer can be a valuable tool for identifying potential chemical hazards in communities.

The Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) provides information about risks to human health related to potential exposures to TRI chemicals. RSEI is a screening-level model that combines TRI information on the amount of toxic chemical releases with other risk factors to help assess the relative hazard and risk of chemicals, facilities and industries.

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