Sustainability

This new world of sustainability may be different than times past when changes were made based on dollars spent instead of results. I offer two examples that I am personally familiar with. The first was a rendering plant that was part of my production facility. There was a foul odor coming from the exhaust and the EPA said we had to do something to improve the situation so we installed permanganate scrubber at a cost of $200,000 and this satisfied them. We had taken GC air samples before and after and could detect no difference. Plant employees agreed they could detect no improvement. Second example was on the UND campus. There was an air sampling station set up by the EPA near the power plant. This plant used lignite coal to heat all the building and the stack emitted sulfites and nitrites above the legal limits. The university added 25 feet to the height of the stack and the problem was solved since the smoke passed far above the sampling station.
This does not mean that things like more effective packaging cannot work and I am sure that replacing organics with water is an improvement. I merely point out that sometimes perceived changes satisfy.