TABLE OF CONTENTS Many manufacturing plants use more water than is strictly necessary in the course of their manufacturing operations. This is especially true in areas where water is plentiful and where plants operate their own water wells or water treatment facilities. Unfortunately, the water has to be treated once it is intermingled with process chemicals, and it is almost always a cost-effective practice to minimize the amount of wastewater generated.
Before end-of-pipe wastewater treatment or modifications to existing wastewater treatment facilities are implemented, a program of waste minimization should be initiated. Reduction and recycling of waste are inevitably site and plant specific, but a number of generic approaches and techniques have been used successfully across the country to reduce many kinds of industrial wastes.
Generally, waste minimization techniques can be grouped into four major categories:
inventory management and improved operations,
modification of equipment,
production process changes, and
recycling and reuse.
These general techniques have application across a wide range of industries and manufacturing processes and can apply to hazardous and non-hazardous wastes, as well as to wastewater. Table 12.1 provides a listing of steps that can be taken for each of these techniques.
| Inventory Management and Improved Operations:
Modification of Equipment:
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