Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Chemical Waste Disposals by US Chemical Companies

A United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) database (click here to go to the database) provides the quantities of chemical wastes generated by US chemical companies (and companies in other sectors).  Although the database is primarily intended to support EPA’s goals of excellent US environmental qualities, the database can also show how individual companies are handling individual chemical wastes.

For example, once a chemical is selected from a list of hundreds of chemicals, individual chemical companies disposing of that chemical can be found.  For the individual chemical company, various disposal methods used by the company, along with quantities disposed of, are provided.

It seems to me that this information on individual companies can be useful for such reasons as the following:  

1.  A company needing to dispose of a chemical can determine how other companies are disposing of that chemical;
2.  An assessment can be make of the attributes of a company’s disposal program (e.g. cost effectiveness inferences, e.g. recovery versus non-recovery; environmental desirability, e.g. the methods of disposal; and total wastes, data which is given; and
3.  Insights into the identities and quantities of company productions.
4.  Process operations management principles identify waste, especially inventory waste, as critical to contend with in improving process operations.  Details at this EPA database might be helpful in decreasing chemical company waste.


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