GARDEN GROVE : Firm Cuts Pollution While Lowering Fees

It’s possible for a company to clean up its act and save money at the same time.

A local manufacturer did just that, cutting its hazardous air emissions from 97 tons a year to zero.

Laminating Co. of America reduced its use of toxic solvents to save money on regulatory fees. A bonus was that the Garden Grove firm was awarded the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s 1995 Clean Air Award.

“We feel that we’re an environmentally correct company now, and we plan to stay this way,” said health and safety manager Chris Jenkins. “The place is safer, so we don’t require the same kind of protective equipment we needed to handle the material in the past. It makes a cleaner environment for our neighbors, and we don’t produce the hazardous waste out of our manufacturing either.”

The firm accomplished that by switching to a new, solvent-free adhesive that it developed with the help of environmental consultants.

The new adhesive is about 15% more expensive, Jenkins said, but the cost was justified by the $136,000 the firm now saves on permits and paperwork required by the air board.

It also allowed the firm to eliminate the ozone-depleting chemicals once used for cleaning.

“We cut out some very harsh solvents [used] to clean the material up,” Jenkins said. “Now we can use basically soapy water, instead of solvent, to clean the material.”

It’s a strategy that could help other companies marry profit margins and pollution control, Jenkins said. “I would hope that we could make a benchmark off of this,” he said.