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Six out of the eight most common sources of waste in warehouses can be found in the battery room, according to Harold Vanasse, vice president of sales and marketing at battery company Philadelphia Scientific.

The eight main sources of waste are overproduction, motion, waiting, transportation, over-processing, inventory, defects, and people. All but overproduction and over-processing are evident in the average warehouse’s battery room, making the storage area a source of considerable waste, Vanasse argues in a feature for Manufacturing.net.

The majority of these battery room wasteful practices occur due to human error. For example, if staff are correctly trained on battery life span and maintenance, they would be able to make the appropriate number of trips to the battery room to replace spent cells and those batteries would be watered and charged by the appropriate number of people.

If these processes are set up inefficiently if can also result in people moving too much while setting up batteries for recharge, and extended periods of waiting for fresh batteries by those employees on the floor, Vanasse argues.

Indeed, the main cause of limited battery run time, reduced battery life and waste in the battery room is a poor battery rotation system, according to Vanasse.

Six out of the eight most common sources of waste in warehouses can be found in the battery room, according to Harold Vanasse, vice president of sales and marketing at battery company Philadelphia Scientific.

The eight main sources of waste are overproduction, motion, waiting, transportation, over-processing, inventory, defects, and people. All but overproduction and over-processing are evident in the average warehouse’s battery room, making the storage area a source of considerable waste, Vanasse argues in a feature for Manufacturing.net.

The majority of these battery room wasteful practices occur due to human error. For example, if staff are correctly trained on battery life span and maintenance, they would be able to make the appropriate number of trips to the battery room to replace spent cells and those batteries would be watered and charged by the appropriate number of people.

If these processes are set up inefficiently if can also result in people moving too much while setting up batteries for recharge, and extended periods of waiting for fresh batteries by those employees on the floor, Vanasse argues.

Indeed, the main cause of limited battery run time, reduced battery life and waste in the battery room is a poor battery rotation system, according to Vanasse.

Read the complete article at Environmental Leader

The spent batteries Americans turn in for recycling are increasingly being sent to Mexico, where their lead is often extracted by crude methods that are illegal in the United States, exposing plant workers and local residents to dangerous levels of a toxic metal.

The rising flow of batteries is a result of strict new Environmental Protection Agency standards on lead pollution, which make domestic recycling more difficult and expensive, but do not prohibit companies from exporting the work and the danger to countries where standards are low and enforcement is lax.

Mexican environmental officials acknowledge that they lack the money, manpower and technical capacity to police a fast-growing industry now operating in many parts of the country, often in dilapidated neighborhoods like the one here, 30 miles northwest of Mexico City.

Batteries are imported through official channels or smuggled in to satisfy a growing demand for lead, once cheap and readily available but now in short global supply. Lead batteries are crucial to cellphone networks, solar power arrays and the exploding Chinese car market, and the demand for lead has increased as much as tenfold in a decade.

An analysis of trade statistics by The New York Times shows that about 20 percent of spent American vehicle and industrial batteries are now exported to Mexico, up from 6 percent in 2007. About 20 million such batteries will cross the border this year, according to United States trade statistics, and that does not take into account batteries smuggled in as mislabeled metal scrap or second-hand goods. In September, more than 60 18-wheelers full of old batteries crossed the border each day, trade records show.

Read the complete article at The New York Times Science Environment

The cleaning products that we use to wipe down our countertops, wash our dishes and clothes and scent our air contain potentially toxic chemicals, and they’re getting into our bodies.

That’s according to a recent report that I authored, “Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products,” for the NGO Women’s Voices for the Earth.

More and more evidence comes out every year, finding that chemicals linked with asthma, reproductive harm and breast cancer are turning up in our bodies. Even newborn babies are born with over 200 industrial chemicals in their systems. The dose of chemicals coming from a single spray may be minimal, but chemical exposures can build up over time to have cumulative, long-term health impacts, especially on women and children. The mixtures of chemicals we are exposed to also pose a concern.

Some cleaning product companies have made efforts to “green up” their practices, pledging to take out chemicals that have a particularly bad rap, notably phthalates and synthetic musks. But if tests reveal that these chemicals are still contained inside, even after statements to the contrary, consumers will start to lose faith in a company’s ability to have the consumer’s best interests in mind.

Read the complete article at GreenBiz.com

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released the latest version of its building energy modeling software EnergyPlus, which calculates the energy required to heat, cool, ventilate, and light a building. EnergyPlus is used by architects and engineers to design more efficient buildings, by researchers to investigate new building and system designs, and by policymakers to develop energy codes and standards. The advanced physics calculations within EnergyPlus allows it to model a wide range of residential and commercial buildings and HVAC system types, including passive building designs and low-energy systems. EnergyPlus v7.0 features many enhancements including:

• 25%-40% faster execution speeds on a wide variety of models. Up to 500% improvements are possible on models using airflow networks
• Improved modeling of ventilation rate procedures and a new thermal comfort report, both based on ASHRAE Standard 62.1
• New equipment performance data sets for packaged rooftop air-conditioners and heat pumps
• New model for variable refrigerant flow heat pump air-conditioners
• Extensions to the Energy Management System (EMS) and Runtime Language
• Updated utilities.

Full story

Project will create East Palo Alto’s first direct access to San Francisco Bay, support economic development, public health

SAN FRANCISCO — Today, the City of East Palo Alto, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District will participate in a groundbreaking to clean up and restore an eighty-year old toxic burn dump to create a new nine-acre bayfront nature park.

Soil in the project area is contaminated with mercury, arsenic, polycyclic biphenyls (PCB’s), lead, DDT, dioxins, and a host of other chemicals.
“This community-based cleanup and redevelopment project will provide the residents of East Palo Alto with direct access to healthy, safe open space near the largest pristine wetland in San Francisco Bay,” said Jane Diamond, EPA’s Superfund Division Director for the Pacific Southwest. “This coordinated investment will transform an empty, toxic dump into a precious natural resource, serving families as well as the City’s economic development goals.”

Through the cleanup, the former dump will be transformed into source of community pride, serving families and the City’s jobs and economic development goals in the Ravenswood Business District.

East Palo Alto now has 16 acres of parkland (0.5 acres/1000 persons). Once Cooley Landing opens to the public, it will increase that by 72% toward the State of California’s goal of 3 acres/1000 persons. The new project will provide outdoor recreation opportunities to promote healthy lifestyles and environmental and historic education opportunities, especially for youth.

East Palo Alto Mayor Carlos Romero said, “This project is so important because we’ll actually have a place right here in our backyards where our kids can connect to nature. Ultimately, if we want to save our planet, they need to have that connection.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing $800,000 in Brownfields funding to remediate the site and has provided more than $2.4 M in funding to address job training and environmental contamination to the City of East Palo Alto since 1996.   The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District and many other partners have also contributed to make this project possible. Funders such as the Packard Foundation, EPA/California Department of Toxic Substances Control, Cal Recycle, California Coastal Conservancy/San Francisco Bay Trail Project, Forest and Lands Stewardship Council, and many others have also contributed to a community planning process, permitting, design, and – now finally — cleanup.

Future phases not yet funded will renovate the site’s historic wooden boat works building to create a nature and history education center that will demonstrate green technology and gather together East Palo Alto’s multicultural residents. The City also seeks funding to fulfill the community’s vision for outdoor nature and history interpretive displays and water overlooks.

The new Cooley Landing Park will support infill economic development and jobs creation in the nearby Ravenswood Business District, a former industrial area. The District’s property owner’s association supports this project because it will attract future developers as an amenity for new employees and residents. It beautifies the neighborhood and shows the City’s capacity to transform this District, as it already has transformed other parts of town. It will create local jobs, reducing the need for commuting; this project will reuse existing brownfields, thus sparing pristine greenfields.

For more information please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region9/superfund/cooley/

E-waste (electronic and electrical waste) recycling and reuse (R&R) services include a wide plethora of business types, such as collectors, de-manufacturers, material processors, asset managers, recyclers and refurbishers. Companies involved in the e-waste R&R industry purchase, refurbish, recycle and sell used (working or non-working), obsolete or surplus electronic and electrical (E&E) items – including everything from computers and cell phones to refrigerators and microwaves, as well as E&E components and parts – including CRT tubes, plastics and precious metals).

The e-waste R&R services industry is complex and sometimes could even be referred to as elusive. A simple route for an electronic item on its way to be recycled may entail collection from a garbage collector, triage by a dismantling company and then final processing by an end processor, such as a smelter or refiner. More complex routes may be more difficult to track and E&E items may find themselves undocumented in storage somewhere, overseas illegally or even in landfills. It is not uncommon for an e-waste collector, or even dismantler, to have little or no knowledge regarding the destination of its products. This situation is changing, however, as the regulatory framework for e-waste R&R services becomes more established – at least in some regions -and as the market continues to evolve and grow.

In 2010 the e-waste R&R services market value totaled close to $6.8 billion, up from $6.2 billion in 2009. Industry growth is expected to continue on its uphill path at least through the next decade, with collection services alone more than tripling by 2020. In 2010, China and India (out of the top ten country pool) are estimated to retain the largest market shares, in terms of value, with approximate shares of 23.7% and 21.6% respectively.

Read the complete article at Environmental Expert

WASHINGTON – As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s commitment to enhance the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chemicals management program and increase transparency, the agency is making available to the public hundreds of studies on chemicals that had been treated as confidential business information (CBI). The move is part of EPA’s plan to make public the chemicals that are not entitled to CBI status. Releasing the data will expand the public’s access to critical health and safety information on chemicals that are manufactured and processed in the U.S. Newly available information can be found using EPA’s Chemical Data Access Tool.

“EPA is increasing the availability of critical health and safety studies on chemicals that children and families are exposed to every day. We are making important progress in making this information public and giving the American public easy access to it,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “Over the next year, we expect to review several thousand additional studies on industrial chemicals and make many of these more accessible to the public.”

Since 2009, 577 formerly confidential chemical identities are no longer confidential and more than 1,000 health and safety studies are now accessible to the public that were previously unavailable or only available in limited circumstances. In 2010 EPA issued new guidance outlining the agency’s plans to deny confidentiality claims for chemical identities in health and safety studies under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that are determined to not be entitled to CBI status. EPA has been reviewing CBI claims in new and existing TSCA filings containing health and safety studies.

Read the compete article at EPA News