There are many forms of waste that can suck the life blood (money) out of your business. I’m here to recommend best management practices and technology to reduce or eliminate the bleeding and suggest ways to get funding to do it.
Today, reducing waste is often a question of survival, so don’t miss any opportunity to eliminate your waste problem.
Canadians do not have a historically brilliant culture of conservation – quite the contrary as we are so used to seemingly unlimited natural resources. According to the United Nations reports, we are per capita the most wasteful nation on earth. As Al Gore tells us, if other countries consumed and wasted resources like North Americans we would need four earths to maintain our exorbitant lifestyle. So, shifting our business paradigm to concentrate on reducing waste is tough for us. Too bad, so sad – we gotta do it to improve our bottom line.
What waste are we talking about? The common concept of waste in print shops is the tangibles: solid waste (paper, plates, ink cans, skid wood etc), liquid waste, (film or plate process wash water, etc) and hazardous waste (solvents, developers, fountain solutions, ink etc.)
But, the intangible waste can be even more costly including air emissions, energy, time, space and opportunities.
Waste is very expensive; consider what it costs to replace the money spent on waste (and all waste boils down to money). If you are realizing a 10% profit by the end of the day, then for each $100 lost in waste, you will have to sell at least $1000 in sales to make it up – not so easy these days. Instead of thinking “ah well,” paying out to have that all the waste picked up each week as a cost of doing business, think of it as a cost doing you out of business. Start to strongly hate it.
To quote Shoichiro Toyoda, president of Toyota, waste is “ anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, paperwork, space and workers time, which are absolutely essential to add value to the product. Let’s go through the various processes and areas that create waste and discuss what can be done.
Prepress
CTP developers are corrosive with a high pH value so, if you do not have a pH-neutralizing unit, then it is illegal to discharge to drain. These units can save costs in haulage, but by installing a developer recycler, you can cut your replenisher chemical costs in half and staff time in mixing the replenisher solution. Also, you will reduce sewer discharge by half. Have you studied your water bill? More than half the costs are in sewer use charges.
Most companies that still process film know that it is mandatory to have a silver recovery system in place. It is also important to have a secondary ion exchange cartridge and a final treatment filter with a carbon element to co-mingle and treat spent developer, fixer and wash water prior to drain. This, again, saves haulage costs and municipal sewer surcharges if you are inspected.
For spent proofing, photocopier and inkjet printer cartridges call the Canadian Association of Food Banks. They have a program that turns collected inkjet or laser printer/copier cartridges and old cell phones into food for food banks and milk for underprivileged kids at the rate of eight glasses of milk for each cartridge recycled. Participate in the thINK FOOD program by calling 416-516-7465 or go online to www.think-food.com. Anything, especially contaminants like ink, not thrown in landfill, saves you money and helps the environment.
Pressroom waste
Solvents: by their very nature, solvents are volatile. They evaporate quickly, so take a walk around and see how many drums or cans of rubber rejuvenator, blanket wash, alcohol etc. are open, bungs and caps off, the red dispenser cans of solvent by the press with their lids open. Years ago, I did a study that showed in one particular print shop they were losing 14% or $4,200 of purchased solvent like this through unnecessary evaporation. What a waste! These harmful fugitive emissions are being breathed in by workers throughout your facility, possibly wasting time and productivity (money) through sickness. Write up a big notice: “Keep containers closed when not in use.”
Buy in bulk to save costs: drums instead of gallon cans, totes instead of drums. My grandmother always said it is expensive to be poor and cheap. Recycle, filter and reuse options. For those with auto blanket wash units, you’re lucky because you can install a made in Canada Uni-ram distillation solvent recycler (best in the world). They work very well, reducing virgin solvent purchases, VOC emissions and the associated truck deliveries by 70% – 85% depending on the solvent. No requirement for a special explosion proof room either, like vacuum distillation units, as they meet fire code. It usually pays for itself within a year. This has proven in many locations to successfully gain savings, not just on the cost of the solvent, but also on the reportable VOCs in the solvent previously purchased. The savings on the waste haulage alone is often enough to pay for the recycler in a year. Then, there is the reduction in the deliveries and pickup, reducing truck emissions and staff handling time.
Fountain solutions: Compliant and conscientious printers usually collect and have waste fountain solutions picked up by a licensed hauler at an average cost of $200 per drum. Unconscionable printers pour this toxic brew down the drain, but they are not our focus group here.
The most effective solution is to install an in-line closed loop-recycling unit. They range in price from expensive imports like the Flo-Clear to made-in-Canada Nu-Klear units that printers can now rent on a monthly basis (send me an email for details). The savings in virgin fount concentrate, waste haulage costs and press operator time is huge. Then, there are the reduced costs of waste manifesting and MOE fees for hazardous waste haulage. The other option is to install an ultra filtration membrane system to treat the waste for safe disposal to sewer. I recommend the hollow tube rather than spiral wound type membranes as they can be cleaned physically and quickly and last longer. This will reduce waste haulage costs. These savings can add up big time; for example, if you are a printer and pay $200 per week to have a drum of waste solvent picked up for disposal that’s $10,400 per year. How much in sales do you have to generate to pay for that waste?
Still running Isopropyl alcohol in your dampening system? RO filtration will reduce surface tension of the water and remove soluble minerals – less piling. The dosing system will ensure a consistent concentrate-water mix ratio and conductivity. It will greatly help in running IPA free and save the press operator’s time no longer spent on mixing fount and getting the conductivity right. The productivity will be improved as its one less variable and the quality of the printed word enhanced as IPA is an ink diluent reducing colour saturation. Cleaning time is saved as RO filtration eliminates bacterial growth and algae in the dampening solution by removing microbiological organisms from the raw water – no more bio-slime. It also extends plate life by removing the salts of calcium and magnesium that are deposited on the plate surface from untreated tap water. IPA is also a 100% VOC – nasty stuff in the atmosphere.
Ink Waste
An excellent P2 system to reduce ink waste is the Color-Matic Ink Doser. This computerized system precisely measures the ink for any required colour, process, specialty or PMS and extracts the exact amount directly from the suppliers can. The compression head of the extractor removes all ink down to <1%. Traditionally, the average wastage from residual ink left in cans, mixing pallets, skinning and ink knives from manual blending is 5%.
Purchasing ink in bulk also reduces waste and the delivery, handling and storage of those 2.2 kg cans. How many cans do you purchase in a year? If you run two 5-colour presses, single shift, it can be over 3500 cans per year. Each can has some waste ink residue going to landfill.
Space Waste
The amount of old unused equipment taking up valuable space in print shops amazes me – get rid of it, sell that old stitcher, platen press, silver master camera or whatever to a scrap metal merchant. Make a few bucks and use the space profitably or rent it to a subcontractor.
Energy Waste
We are blessed and cursed with some of the lowest energy costs in the world. If we were paying $0.43 per kW-hr like the UK instead of our $0.05 cents perhaps we’d use it more wisely. We tend to use most of our production energy during typical peak periods when the cost of hydro and gas is most expensive. We can try spreading the timing of production runs to reduce peak period costs, or more practically, by installing a device called a harmonic balancer. Discuss this option with your electrician. Support clean energy initiatives by purchasing through Bullfrog Power, who supply only from wind turbine of hydro-produced electricity; no coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear.
Compressors: If you run a compressor, duct the intake air from the outside through a wall or roof. This will save wasting energy because cold winter air is much more dense than the warm air inside a building. And, that’s helping the unit to “compress” more efficiently. In the summer, switch back to air-conditioned inside air.
Water heaters: When we process film or plates from an image setter we have to heat or temper the water otherwise, as the film or plate exits the warm developer chemistry and hits winter cold water, reticulation and fit problems occur. A typical medium-size company will use 135 – 150 tonnes of tempered water per year to process film and plates. This equals to 0.33 – 0.45 tonnes of CO2 emission. So, by installing a wash water recirculator, it will reduce water consumption and sewer use costs, heating energy costs and CO2 emissions at the same time.
Computers: The average desktop computer consumes up to 250 watts per day, without the monitor. If you use it for only four hours a day and then turn it off, the savings would be about $80 per year for each computer device. Plug all computer, printing, photocopiers and fax machines into a power bar with a surge protector for each work station. One switch turns them all off. Kill all the lights and devices at quitting time.
Office / Facility Waste
Make it less convenient to print out emails and unnecessary documents. Use a common printer for a number of workstations and offices rather than one per computer. Print on both sides of paper. This will save paper cost, paper waste and ink cartridge costs. Use the reverse side of used copier paper for incoming faxes. Have a footer on all internal emails stating “this is an eco-friendly company; please do not print out this email unnecessarily.” Also, remember to shut down all electronic and electrical equipment and lights at night.
Fluorescent tubes recycling: they contain mercury and phosphor and most often end up in landfill. Each 8ft tube contains 23mg of mercury; each 4ft tube 12mg. The mercury becomes a leachate toxic entering our streams and lakes where it is converted by bacteria into methyl mercury. This molecule collects in the fatty tissues of fish and the animals that eat fish. The toxic effects on animals and humans are well documented. It is very corrosive; it’s also harmful if inhaled and can be absorbed through intact skin. So, collect and send your spent tubes to FLR Cambridge for deconstruction and mercury capture. Over 98% of the lamp is recycled by FLR. Products recaptured include glass, aluminum and brass. The real trick is separating the mercury from the phosphor powder ensuring that nothing is land filled. They can turn fluorescent lamps into anything but toxic waste. Call 1-800-324-9018 for details.
E-waste: The National Cristina Foundation and Dell have partnered to provide computer technology to people with disabilities, students at risk and economically disadvantaged persons. There’s no charge to donate used or obsolete computer technology. The process is straightforward. Plus, by donating no longer needed systems, you can reduce storage costs and administrative time and expenses. You can donate this equipment to help local, non-profit organizations and public agencies provide skills to disabled and economically disadvantaged children and adults throughout Canada. A great idea as an Earth Day event; get some marketing mileage out of it and offer to pickup e-waste from your clients or, even better, have a drop off station at your plant.
General Waste
A good percentage of items thrown into the garbage are misplaced recyclable items in the wrong waste stream. This can often be reduced with an initiative for plant, office and kitchen waste by 20%. Create a procedure on reduction of general waste via an internal source separation recycling or green box program for production, office and kitchen waste. A designated “green team” could be created representing each department to initiate a company wide program.
Environment: If we understand and better control the environmental aspects of our business, we will improve our profitability. You see, it really boils down to reducing or eliminating waste. Isn’t pollution an avoidable business cost from mismanaged or unnecessarily created waste? Prevention is better than cure, and pollution prevention saves money over waste treatment. There is a common false paradigm – “we are doing our best by treating our waste.” In actuality, what is best for our business and the environment is not to produce the waste in the first place, or at least recycle and reuse it or reduce it (hmmm‚Ķ3 R’s‚Ķnow that could catch on‚Ķ).
P2 Resources: The definition of pollution prevention is “eliminating or reducing waste at its source.” An active commitment to pollution prevention practices and waste management reduces operating costs, protects capital investment and increases business efficiencies. Two of the best exponents of P2 initiatives are the Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention (C2P2) and the Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement (OCETA); they have a synergistic relationship.
FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR WASTE MANGEMENT PROJECTS AND TECHNOLOGY
Thanks to funding provided by the Government of Ontario, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) has created the SMART Program to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs manufacturers up to 500 employees) including printers in Ontario improve their productivity so they can compete more effectively in the international economy. A wide variety of productivity improvement projects are eligible, including energy efficiency improvement, environmental impact reduction, lean manufacturing, and design and quality improvement. Projects of any size can be proposed for funding. SMART funding is available for up to 50% of project costs or $50,000, whichever is less, including capital equipment, installation and administration costs. Good projects shouldn’t be too big or too complicated. This would be ideal for the waste treatment systems and the on-site recycling equipment I discussed. It would also include pollution prevention assessments encompassing waste management as it covers professional fees and benchmarking a project. Preparation of benchmarking analyses and any associated travel, detailed project planning, specifications for new equipment or software to be acquired and associated procurement activities (RFPs, RFP evaluation, etc.). Validation of internally prepared benchmarking and/or project plans by outside experts. For full details go to www.cme-smart.ca.
Funding through Tax Credits; the federal and provincial governments reward companies that invest in research and development projects. This would include the investment in researching and developing waste treatment systems specific to your facility. For a small, privately-owned printing company, CCPC tax credits might pay back as much as 68% of eligible expenditures. Talk with your accountant or call companies like Service Optiprint (888-471-5092) that specialize in helping printers with SR & ED tax credit issues.
Funding is available through the Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement to conduct P2 and waste management Assessment. OCETA partners with many municipalities to provide cost share funding for pollution prevention and waste management assessments. They have assisted dozens of printers with recommended action plans, capital cost recovery and savings through better waste management.
In Summary
With these economically challenging times, such initiatives may turn loss into profit for you, just by doing the right thing for your business, community and our environment. Waste costs us a lot of money and we either only get a fraction of it back or have to pay to have it safely disposed of. It never actually goes away, just goes somewhere else. There are better ways and pollution prevention practices is one of them. I hope 2009 is kind to you.
