The move from hazardous waste management to pollution
prevention is viewed as a paradigm shift in American
industry. Pollution prevention involves source reduction to
reduce the amount of hazardous waste that is generated, and
recycling of those wastes that cannot be prevented within
the production process. The first piece of federal
pollution prevention legislation was enacted in 1990.
Subsequently, six states have passed similar laws that
require industries producing hazardous waste to shift to
less polluting practices.
The Oregon Toxics Use Reduction and Hazardous Waste
Reduction Act of 1989 requires businesses to develop and
implement a hazardous waste reduction plan that reduces not
only the amount of hazardous waste generated, but also the
type and amount of materials classified as "toxic".
Within the geographical region of Oregon, California,
Washington, Alaska, and Idaho, only four studies exist that
have researched waste reduction opportunities in the
automobile industry.
The purpose of this study was: 1) to determine the
number of Small Quantity Hazardous Waste Generators within
the Oregon automobile dealership industry, 2) to determine
the amount of used radiator coolant and used crankcase oil
that is generated by Oregon dealerships (two waste streams
that are not being tracked by the regulatory community), 3)
to compare the waste disposal practices of urban and rural
facilities, and 4) to develop a "Model" Toxics Use Reduction
and Hazardous Waste Reduction Plan to be used in regional
training sessions.
Based on a 74% rate of return (160 out of 215
dealerships), the results indicated that the gross
quantities of the materials investigated (solvents, used
oil, and used antifreeze) were greater in urban dealerships.
These differences were not significant when quantities of
material were standardized to the number of repair orders
written.
Urban dealerships generate 0.462 gallons of used oil per
repair order written and rural dealerships generate 0.481
gallons. Urban dealerships also generate 0.209 pounds of
hazardous waste for each repair order while rural
dealerships generate 0.412 pounds.
The data were used to develop a "Model" Toxics Use
Reduction and Hazardous Waste Reduction Plan for this
industry. The plan, which was published by the Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), provides
dealerships and the entire automobile repair industry with a
step by step guideline to comply with Oregon law in reducing
the amount of toxic materials used and hazardous waste
generated. / Graduation date: 1994
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/35708 |
| Date | 09 July 1993 |
| Creators | Wang, Mitchell K. |
| Contributors | Harding, Anna K. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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