Fulfilling our environmental obligations, be at a household or corporate level, is more important than ever. Landfill space is filling up fast, and lakes are choking. According to a report by the United Nations, 2.2 billion tons of waste is dumped each year. It all this waste was placed on trucks they’d have to go around the globe 24 times. It’s not too late, however, to turn things around for the better.
Whether you’re looking to build a manufacturing unit or want to set up an industrial facility for refining plastic material, there’s a lot you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Technological advancements and innovative practices in power usage, machinery replacement, engineering, and beyond have raised never-before-known opportunities for making the environment safer.
To that end, here are 3 ways to prevent industrial practices & processes from causing serious harm to the environment.
- Minimize Preventive Maintenance
In a manufacturing facility, preventive maintenance is one of the leading cause of environmental damage. When large equipment suffers from excessive wear or damage, preventive maintenance is performed, where worn out/damaged parts are thrown out and replaced with new ones. Dumped parts give rise to industrial waste. This can be prevented with wear plates.
Wear plates like chromium carbide plate are expendable items that can prevent excessive damage or wear to manufacturing equipment. Components like steel backing plate are subject to zero wear from a strong flow and can even hold the composite together against severest of impacts, rendering units almost shatterproof. As a result, you’d need less preventive maintenance in and around your facility.
- Consider Using Renewable Energy
In general, factories consume a lot of electricity, and there’s nothing you can really do to change this. But what you can do is produce all that electricity with renewable energy. This type of energy is still under fallacy, with several industry owners convinced that it wouldn’t be able to generate the quantity of electricity they require. But the sheer power of these natural elements is often underestimated.
Rain, heat, wind, and sunlight can generate a good volume of electricity. Many factories utilize a combination of at least two of these sources in case that one element experiences “downtime.” Firms such as Graybar are experts in deploying such facilities for industrial processes. But it is also possible to work with an energy provider that’s using green energy instead of burning fossil fuels and the like.
- Select Green Materials
Incorporating environmentally friendly materials in the manufacturing process is a great way for a facility to become greener. Companies can begin this process by sourcing raw materials in an eco-friendly fashion by collecting them from post-consumer waste, construction waste, agriculture sources (renewable), and waste streams. Another solution can be moving from natural to synthetic products.
For example, Gypsum is one of the minerals used in all kinds of residential construction. While natural gypsum can be mined, companies can minimize the harm they cause to the planet by using synthetic gypsum instead. Post-consumer waste also offers a range of options for technologically-advanced manufacturers. For example, Ecocell products that are produced with post-industrial and post-consumer paper allow factories to create fewer emissions than they usually would. Likewise, recycled newspapers can serve as a base for blankets and batts.
Taking these measures can help your factory achieve cost savings that will ultimately have a positive impact on the planet while also positively impacting your bottom line.
