f/EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Risk Reduction
Engineering Laboratory
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Research and Development
EPA/600/S-92/053 October 1992
ENVIRONMENTAL
RESEARCH BRIEF
Waste Reduction Activities and Options for a
Printing Plate Preparation Section of a Newspaper
Alan Ulbrecht and Daniel J. Watts*
Abstract
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded a
project with the New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection and Energy (NJDEPE) to assist in conducting waste
minimization assessments at 30 small- to medium-sized busi-
nesses in the state of New Jersey. One of the sites selected
was a printing plate preparation area of a large circulation
newspaper printing facility. The areas of concern on the part of
the publishing company that lead to the waste minimization
opportunities assessment were levels of contaminants in their
wastewater which were above the limits established by the
local sewage authority. The process used for plate preparation
is fundamentally a photographic transfer operation involving
developing and fixing photographic films. A site visit was made
in 1990 during which several opportunities for waste minimiza-
tion were identified. Options included changes in some of the
chemicals used in the process, reduced levels of rinse water,
and improved silver recovery technology. Implementation of
the identified waste minimization opportunities was not part of
the program. Percent waste reduction, net annual savings,
implementation costs and payback periods were estimated.
This Research Brief was developed by the Principal Investiga-
tors and EPA's Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory in Cin-
cinnati, OH, to announce key findings of this completed as-
sessment.
Introduction
The environmental issues facing industry today have expanded
considerably beyond traditional concerns. Wastewater, air
emissions, potential soil and groundwater contamination, solid
waste disposal, and employee health and safety have become
increasingly important concerns. The management and dis-
posal of hazardous substances, including both process-related
wastes and residues from waste treatment, receive significant
attention because of regulation and economics.
As environmental issues have become more complex, the
strategies for waste management and control have become
more systematic and integrated. The positive role of waste
minimization and pollution prevention within industrial operations
at each stage of product life is recognized throughout the
world. An ideal goal is to manufacture products while generat-
ing the least amount of waste possible.
The Hazardous Waste Advisement Program (HWAP) of the
Division of Hazardous Waste Management, NJDEPE, is pursu-
ing the goals of waste minimization awareness and program
implementation in the state. HWAP, with the help of an EPA
grant from the Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, con-
ducted an Assessment of Reduction and Recycling Opportuni-
ties for Hazardous Waste (ARROW) project. ARROW was
designed to assess waste minimization potential across a
broad range of New Jersey industries. The project targeted 30
sites to perform waste minimization assessments following the
approach outlined in EPA's Waste Minimization Opportunity
Assessment Manual (EPA/625/7-88/003). Under contract to
NJDEPE, the Hazardous Substance Management Research
Center at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) as-
sisted in conducting the assessments. This research brief
presents an assessment of the preparation of printing plates at
a newspaper printing facility (1 of the 30 assessments per-
formed) and provides recommendations for waste minimization
options resulting from the assessment.
* New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102
Printed on Recycled Paper
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Methodology of Assessments
The assessment process was coordinated by a team of techni-
cal staff from NJIT with experience in process operations,
basic chemistry, and environmental concerns and needs. Be-
cause the EPA waste minimization manual is designed to be
primarily applied by the inhouse staff of the facility, the degree
of involvement of the NJIT team varied according to the ease
with which the facility staff could apply the manual. In some
cases, NJITs role was to provide advice. In others, NJIT
conducted essentially the entire evaluation.
The goal of the project was to encourage participation in the
assessment process by management and staff at the facility.
To do this, the participants were encouraged to proceed through
the organizational steps outlined in the manual. These steps
can be summarized as follows:
• Obtaining corporate commitment to a waste minimization
initiative
• Organizing a task force or similar group to carry out the
assessment
• Developing a policy statement regarding waste minimiza-
tion for issuance by corporate management
• Establishing tentative waste reduction goals to be achieved
by the program
• Identifying waste-generating sites and processes
• Conducting a detailed site inspection
• Developing a list of options which may lead to the waste
reduction goal
• Formally analyzing the feasibility of the various options
• Measuring the effectiveness of the options and continuing
the assessment.
Not every facility was able to follow these steps as presented.
In each case, however, the identification of waste-generating
sites and processes, detailed site inspections, and development
of options was carried out. Frequently, it was necessary for a
high degree of involvement by NJIT to accomplish these steps.
Two common reasons for needing outside participation were a
shortage of technical staff within the company and a need to
develop an agenda for technical action before corporate com-
mitment and policy statements could be obtained.
It was not a goal of the ARROW project to participate in the
feasibility analysis or implementation steps. However, NJIT
offered to provide advice for feasibility analysis if requested.
In each case, the NJIT team made several site visits to the
facility. Initially, visits were made to explain the EPA manual
and to encourage the facility through the organizational stages.
If delays and complications developed, the team offered assis-
tance in the technical review, inspections, and option develop-
ment.
No sampling or laboratory analysis was undertaken as part of
these assessments.
Facility Background
The facility is a printer of newspapers which circulate through a
large geographical area. Press runs are frequently in the hun-
dreds of thousands of copies. The facility has been in its
present suburban location since the .early sixties and currently
employs 1200 people. The local sewage authority samples
wastewater at a manhole which receives effluent flow from the
administrative areas as well as the printing plant. It was nec-
essary to identify processes throughout the facility which might
impact upon the contaminants in the wastewater.
Manufacturing Processes
The physical production of the newspaper begins by arrange-
ment of the copy and artwork which is to appear on the printed
page. The layout and pasteup is photographed to produce an
image of the page. A proof is prepared for comparison with the
final print and to permit the printer to make any necessary
adjustments to the press. The photographic image is trans-
ferred to a plate through another photographic developing and
fixing step and the plate serves. The plate is inked in the areas
which are to appear on the paper and the ink is transferred to
the paper.
The portions of the operation which impact upon the wastewa-
ter effluent are primarily the photographic image processing
steps. The facility has six film processors, each of which has
three sections—the developer, the fixer, and the rinser.
To prepare the image, a light-sensitive coating (or photographic
emulsion) is exposed to light which is reflected from or passed
through the image (depending upon whether a photograph is
being taken or if a photographic negative is being used). The
photographic emulsion is composed of silver halides in a gela-
tin base. The emulsion may be spread upon paper, a plastic
base, or a glass plate, depending upon the intended use for
the image. The photographic process produces a negative
image in which the light parts of the copy or artwork which was
photographed produce heavy deposits of silver causing them
to appear dark. The dark parts produce little or no silver
deposits and therefore appear to be light when developed. The
exposed film is developed and fixed by sequential oxidation
and reduction steps.
The development step is accomplished by oxidation, typically
with a hydroquinone solution, to oxidize the photoexposed
silver halide to metallic silver. The fixing step is a reduction with
either sodium or ammonium thiosulfate. The fixing step termi-
nates the oxidation and aids in removal of the unexposed silver
halide from the photographic emulsion.
Following the fixing process, the plate is rinsed with water to
remove any of the chemicals which may still be present on or
in the gelatin layer. Any fixing chemicals which are not re-
moved can continue to react with the metallic silver to produce
silver sulfide and impact the quality of the image. After rinsing
the plate is dried.
Existing Waste Management Activities
The company has already instituted a significant pollution pre-
vention activity. Because of the intrinsic value of silver and the
high volume of photographic developing done at the facility, a
silver recovery system has been installed. The system involves
a silver recovery unit which essentially operates as an electro-
plating process by plating out much of the silver from solution.
At this facility, the effluent from the silver recovery unit passes
to an iron exchange cannister, where the silver ion is chemically
transformed to silver metal through an oxidation/reduction re-
action with iron. The effluent from this process goes to the
sewer.
In sequence, the effluent from the developer section goes by
direct discharge to the sewer. The potential contaminants from
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this section could be hydroquinone from the developer solution
and silver from the film.
Discharge from the fixer goes to the silver recovery unit men-
tioned above. Potential contaminants contained in this effluent
are hydroquinone dragged in from the developer, silver not
removed by the silver recovery units, and nitrogen containing
compounds from the fixer solution, such as ammonium thiosul-
fate.
Most of the overflow discharge from the film processing system
comes from the rinsing section. This discharge goes directly to
the sewer and contains potentially the same contaminants as
found in the fixer section effluent.
The annual discharge from the facility to the sewer authority is
about 5,200,000 gal. At the time of this assessment, the sewage
authority had fixed limits of acceptability for discharge from this
type of facility. Three levels of particular concern were: silver
0.03 mg/l, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) 300 mg/l, and
Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen 40 mg/l. At the time of the assessment,
the effluent from the plant was occasionally reaching higher
levels such as: 1.0 mg/l for silver and 50-75 mg/l for Total
Kjeldahl Nitrogen. The BOD during this period was no higher
than 150 mg/l. The goal of the assessment was to identify
options which would maintain the silver and Kjeldahl nitrogen
levels below the levels acceptable to the sewer authority.
Waste Minimization Opportunities
The type of waste currently generated by the facility, the
source of the waste, the quantity of the waste and the annual
treatment and disposal costs are given in Table 1.
Table 2 shows the opportunities for waste minimization recom-
mended for the facility. The type of waste, the minimization
opportunity, the possible waste reduction and associated sav-
ings, and the implementation cost along with the payback time
are given in the table. The quantities of waste currently gener-
ated at the facility and possible waste reduction depend on the
level of activity of the facility.
It should be noted that the economic savings of the minimiza-
tion opportunity, in most cases, results from the need for less
raw material and from reduced present and future costs asso-
ciated with waste treatment and disposal. It should also be
noted that the savings given for each opportunity reflect the
savings achievable when implementing each waste minimization
opportunity independently and do not reflect duplication of
savings that would result when the opportunities are imple-
mented in a package. Also, no equipment depreciation is
factored into the calculations.
A search was made for chemicals used in the facility which
might contribute to the Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen. Examination of
the Material Safety Data Sheets, revealed only a cleaning
compound which contained ammonia. It was found however
that only about 30 gal/yr of this material is used at the facility
and this would not impact the Kjeldahl Nitrogen value substan-
tially. The other alternative identified was to consider changing
the chemical used as the photographic fixer from ammonium
thiosulfate to sodium thiosulfate. Such a change has been
reported to have an adverse impact on image quality and
would not be implemented by the company.
It is also possible to recycle the fixer solution. This requires a
dedicated continuously operating electrolytic silver recovery
system, because a controlled low level of silver in the fixer
solution is the key to longer life of the system. This recycling
capability would also require control of pH and monitoring to
assure that no appreciable level of sulfur was generated. This
degree of monitoring and control was not seen as possible by
the processing staff; therefore this was not seen as a viable
option.
In order to provide a better understanding of the relationship
between industrial activity and Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen levels
throughout the facility, a special sampling of effluent from
selected sections of the facility was carried out. It was found
that the highest level of Kjeldahl Nitrogen (75 mg/l) was in the
effluent from a section of the facility which generated only
sanitary waste. That is, it had no chemical activity at all.
In contrast to that finding, the highest levels of silver were
found in the effluent from areas where photo processing oc-
curred. In the area with both the electrolytic silver recovery
process and iron exchange technology operating, the silver
level was 0.02 mg/l. In another area which had a silver recov-
ery system, but no iron exchange capability, the silver level
was 1.0 mg/l. Literature values suggest that the silver recovery
system can reduce silver levels to 100 mg/l and the iron
exchange technology can reduce it further to 5 mg/l. In the
present system the lower levels result from dilution with other
aqueous waste streams. The levels can be reduced even lower
through use of an ion exchange resin system, following the iron
exchange cartridge.
It is not known at present whether significant levels of silver are
contained in the effluent from the developer and from the rinse
section. It is recommended that analyses be carried out and
the silver recovery systems be used if significant silver levels
are found in these streams. Such use would allow recovery of
silver and reduce the silver loading to the sewage authority.
Table 1. Summary of Current Waste Generation
Waste Generated
Source of Waste
Aqueous Discharge to
Sewer
Annual Quantity
Generated
Effluent from photo processing
equipment and sanitary discharges.
Based on a flow meter reading, the
volume from the photo system is about
20% of the total flow from the
entire facility.
Annual Waste
Management Costs
5,200,000 gal
$2050
&U.S. GOVERNMENT PUNTING OFFICE: MM - 550-M7/MIS4
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This Research Brief summarizes a part of the work done under
cooperative Agreement No. CR-815165 by the New Jersey
Institute of Technology under the sponsorship of the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA Project
Officer was Mary Ann Curran. She can be reached at:
Pollution Prevention Research Branch
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Tablo 2. Summary of Recommended Waste Minimization Opportunities
Waste Stream
Reduced
Outflow from Photo
Processing
Minimization Opportunity
Install iron exchange canister
and ion exchange unit on
all processing units of the
silver recovery system.
Annual Waste Reduction
Quantity Percent
This will not have a
significant impact
on the volume of water
emitted. It should
however be able to recover
about 44 Ib cf silver.
Net
Annual Savings
$5000
Implementation
Cost
$25,000
Payback
Years'
5.0
* Savings result from reduced raw materials and treatment and disposal costs when implementing each minimization opportunity independently.
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Center for Environmental Research Information
Cincinnati, OH 45268 PERMIT No. G-35
BULK RATE
POSTAGE & FEES PAID
EPA
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
EPA/600/S-92/053
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