Fibre Body Industries

Year Submitted: 2003

Process: Fiberglass Manufacturing

Industry: Plastics

Wastes Reduced: Solvent

Substance: Acetone

Location: Gatesville TX

No. of employees: 120

Contact: Nina Harbaugh

Phone: 512-272-4372

Description:

The company manufactures fiberglass utility truck bodies. They use acetone in their processes. Their acetone liquid was gelling and could not be reclaimed. They traced it back to the source where resin buckets needed to be cleaned and found the resin was causing the acetone to gel.

P2 Application:

Intially, the company cut their acetone in half, and found this gelling problem because they are using less acetone to clean the buckets and therefore the resin was more concentrated. They did a cost analysis and discovered that if they disposed of the buckets instead of cleaning them they could save money and reduce overall disposal amount by eliminating acetone use.

Environmental Benefits:

The company reduced acetone and didn't have any emissions associated with the process.

Details of Reductions

Additional Information :

The cost analysis showed a savings of $16,750 per year, considering the costs of acetone, buckets, cleaning labor, transportation labor, housekeeping labor, bucket disposal costs, and regulatory cost.

Source: TCEQ