5 Top Tips for Preventing Pollution When Budgets are Tight
In 2024, the need to protect the environment may clash with the need to cut costs. But shortcuts in prevention may lead to fines which would eclipse any cost savings. The good news is that effective pollution prevention doesn’t need to cost the earth.
Here are our 5 top tips to help you minimize risks and costs in 2024:
#1 Recycle waste water on site
Oily rainwater collecting in bunds, trays and other traps is both an overflow risk and costly to dispose of. Find another approach that doesn’t generate waste water (like our DrainEezy Bund Filters).
But read our blog Can You Port a Drainage Device to a Secondary Containment Bund to make sure you don’t contravene oil storage regulations.
#2 Do you really need a settlement tank?
Settlement tanks are a great product and the right choice for many dewatering jobs. But not always. For some dewatering jobs, a Green Rhino Manifold Filtration System could save you thousands in settlement tank rental costs. A Manifold enables you to harness up to eight dewatering filters and can deliver the throughput and filtration capacity of a settlement tank. It can pay for itself in weeks and can be reused over and over again. See the end of this article for how to download a data sheet for the Manifold.
#3 Don’t run out of dewatering filters
It’s been a wet start to the year so you are going to have a lot of flooded excavations to pump out. Without enough filters on site, you run the risk of delays whilst you wait for a delivery or workers discharging muddy water into the environment and risking a fine. See our range of rugged sediment filters and make sure operations run smoothly and safely.
#4 Say no to polypropylene-based spill pads and nappies
Polypropylene is a sponge. Great for absorbing hydrocarbons, not very effective at keeping them in. Hang polypropylene-based products up inbetween uses or carry them across site and the absorbed hydrocarbons will migrate to the bottom and drain out. Before they’ve reached anything like capacity, they are impractical to move with the contents leaking out. And if they never seem to reach capacity, that’s because the captured pollutants have already leaked out.
Why risk it? Only EnviroPad locks spills in permanently by turning them into a non-hazardous solid. It also costs less than nappy-style products so it’s better for the environment and an instant cost saving.
#5 Put your foot down
Far be it for us to tell you how to do your job but Environment Managers often tell us that their Best Practice recommendations can be ignored by local project teams. It’s your job to minimize the risk of pollution so don’t take no for an answer. Consider re-educating colleagues perhaps with the help of a Green Rhino onsite demonstration. Or speak to Procurement about removing non-preferred products.
Book an onsite demonstration
To book an onsite demonstration of any Green Rhino products, use the orange button at the top of our home page:
Download a data sheet
For data sheets on any of the products mentioned above, follow the product links in the article and click on the Resources tab underneath the product name:
Tell us about your pollution challenges
We are always on the lookout for new pollution challenges to solve. If you have a problem that you think we might be able to help with, please email sales@greenrhinoglobal.com or call us on 01206 299388. Ideally the challenge will be a common problem not just confined to your site.