CASE 8 [27]: The IBM Corporation IBM’s 1995 energy conservation activities saved $15.1 million, reducing electricity use by 226 million kilowatt hours. These savings were achieved through such efforts as energy conservation in manufacturing processes, installation of a condenser tube cleaning system for refrigeration machines, and upgrading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, lighting, and chilled water system controls along with systematic testing and repairs of an extensive steam trap system. The IBM site in Austin, Texas, produced financial and social benefits by implementing a project that reuses high-quality rinse water in existing cooling systems. 1995 savings for the city were $103,000 with a rebate of $30,000 to IBM. 1996 savings to the city are estimated at $179,000. Recycling for sites in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, produced social benefits by recycling 1,669 tons of commodities in 1995. This equates to the conservation of 28,373 trees, 4,172 barrels of oil, 6.8 million kilowatts of electricity, 11.6 million gallons of water, or 6,676 cubic yards of landfill space. Another social benefit in 1995 was the avoidance of 17,000 tons of hazardous waste from production processes. A new process for manufacturing ceramic substrates replaced methanol with deionised water. The estimated impact is a savings of $739,000 for every 100,000 pounds of glass frit, a raw material used in production, a reduction in methanol emissions of 6,000 pounds, and improved cycle time of 30%. 2.9. Disposal If nothing at all can be done with a spent, failed, or obsolete product, it can only be disposed of. Consider the question: “If the materials and products we are using are originated from the same materials we are composted of, how some of them can be harmful, other harmless? Why are some of them considered waste, and others not?” The answer is simple: distribution of concentration. Elements on this planet had billions of years to balance out, to disperse. Evolution started on this base. We evolved to thrive in an environment with elements distributed in certain ways. However, manufacturing changes the distribution of elements on the Earth, throwing off the balance that we are used to. In the past 200 years, humanity has significantly changed the balance that nature has taken millions of years to establish. For example, there has always been enough radioactive material in the Earth to destroy all life on it. It has until recently been so finely distributed that it has been completely harmless. However, since the atomic age, humanity has gathered radioactive elements into objects of such high density, that otherwise harmless elements can be extremely hazardous now. In order to manage some of the waste of human activities, careful management of its disposal is essential. Disposal is needed when there is nothing left to do with the waste. Many waste chemicals in the past 100 years have been dumped into the rivers simply because the common belief was that they would dissolve and return to their natural state, but many of them did not. Others did degrade, but destroyed many living things in the process. Why is bottled water sold in supermarkets, even in highly developed countries? This is a small but telling example of the impact of continued pollution of the water supply. It becomes vitally important, then, to find ways to dispose of waste that cannot otherwise be treated in ways that returns it to as naturally occurring a state as possible. Some examples include the following. • Organic waste is often disposed of in composts, where it degrades to primary building substances. • Some kinds of plastics are produced to be degradable in ultraviolet light, so when they are left somewhere (hopefully in the sun) they will degrade into harmless by-products. However, some predators that feed with a sea jellyfish are dying out because they cannot distinguish their prey from common plastic bags floating in water. • Golf balls are being manufactured that simply fall apart after about 40 days, degrading to soil components rather than remaining intact in “roughs” and possibly choking animals who eat them. • Once, incineration was considered a very harmful way of disposing of waste, but with novel materials designed to break down harmlessly at high temperatures, and new incineration and air filtering systems, incineration is becoming a highly effective way of disposing of waste. Unfortunately, “landfilling” – the dumping of unprocessed waste into landfills – remains a very popular way of disposing of waste. Little thought is given to the rehabilitation of these landfill sites once they are full, largely because of the perceived cost with other forms of waste disposal. However, such perceptions are usually shortsighted because they fail to take into account the possible revenues arising from other methods and the long-term environmental damage that can result.
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