IN the current economic downturn, waste management programs are providing outstanding results in some diverse areas of Australian manufacturing.
In the Victorian towns of Echuca and Girgarre, the HJ Heinz Co is continuing to develop a holistic Waste Wise program with a focus on general waste reduction including water and energy saving initiatives.
The company’s Echuca plant produces a range of baby food plus baked beans and spaghetti, while the plant at Girgarre manufactures tomato products including paste and tomato sauce.
Environmental health and safety manager, Lester Gilmore, says the Echuca plant in particular has significantly reduced the amount of solid waste going to landfill.
“In 2001 the site sent 0.33m3 of waste to landfill per tonne of product produced compared to 0.036m3 that was sent to landfill in the last fiscal year,” Gilmore told Manufacturers’ Monthly.
“This has been achieved by eliminating waste as much as possible as well as reusing and recycling. A stand alone waste recycling centre, at a cost of approximately $100,000, has been constructed to assist in waste management at the Echuca site.
“A worm farm has been established between the two manufacturing sites to take organic waste, including liquid waste that was formerly going to landfill or that was discharged via the trade waste system to the local sewage treatment plant.
“In addition, some 2,000t of by-product from the Girgarre site (tomato skin and seed, green whole tomato, red off-specification tomato, and tomato vine) is delivered to dairy farms to be used as stock feed.
“Significant reductions in water and energy consumption have also been achieved. The Echuca site has halved its water use per tonne of manufactured product.
“This has been achieved through initiatives such as reuse of stormwater and water used for container washing, and recycling of ingredient washing water.
“Also, the glass filler system, which formerly utilised a ring main with holes, has been replaced with a spray system, and sensors have been installed to automatically turn water off when manufacturing operations have ceased on production lines.
“At Girgarre, wastewater is collected on site and treated before being pumped to local dairy farmers for irrigation. As well as reusing water, this helps drought-affected farmers in the local community.
“Following energy audits, a range of cost effective actions have been taken including the use of more efficient lighting and the installation of light sensors. This has resulted in a 60% reduction in electricity consumption. In addition, natural gas consumption has been reduced by a third,” Gilmore said.
Sand solution
Located in the Melbourne suburb of West Footscray, Graham Campbell Ferrum (GCF) is Australia’s leading foundry producer of large ductile iron castings for a wide range of industries including mining, cement, heavy and general engineering, petrochemical and the brick industry. The company also manufactures small to medium size casting components in its repetition shop.
At a cost of some $1m, GCF has installed a sand reclamation plant that is already providing significant economic and environmental benefits.
The plant, which was subsidised by a grant from Sustainability Victoria, has introduced new technologies to reclaim waste sand moulds and cores and turn them into fresh reclaimed sand for use in the production of new cores and moulds.
Large sand moulds are reduced to grain size and resins are removed from the sand particles, enabling up to 90% of the waste sand to be reclaimed and reused.
According to the company’s finance director, Lou Talevski, the project has a capital equipment pay-back period of approximately two years.
“The need to dispose of waste sand to land fill has been reduced by up to 9,000t per annum, depending on foundry production, and the need to quarry virgin sand has been reduced as a result,” Talevski said.
“GCF is now provided with a more consistent sand grain size and sand quality, costs of disposing of waste sand to landfill are reduced, and the logistics costs of transporting virgin sand to our site and waste to landfill are minimised. In addition, the company is able to more efficiently manage its internal sand stockpiles.
“Waste sand that is not reused by GCF can be provided to garden suppliers as an additive for composting and mulching, used as an input for concrete production, or on-sold as a road base product. There is also the potential to reclaim sand for other foundries provided the sand contains the same binders.
“In addition to the environmental benefits, this project has made GCF more sustainable in a competitive market, and is assisting us to increase product sales to overseas markets,” Talevski told Manufacturers’ Monthly.