Dura Coat plant wins EPA award

Dura Coat Products Inc., Huntsville, Ala., has been recognized for its human and environmental health efforts with the 2009 Achievement Award from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Partnership for Environmental Priorities. From 2008 to 2009, Dura Coat’s Huntsville plant minimized chemical waste, reducing the amount of lead chromate pigment dispersed by 75.12 percent and the amount of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) by 67.64 percent. Reformulating several product lines without sacrificing quality or substantially increasing costs, Dura Coat used less hazardous/toxic materials such as non-lead/chrome pigments and predispersed pigments to reduce hazardous dust. As a result, the company created more environmentally-friendly products with higher solids and better physical properties. Of the approximately 800,000 gallons of paint produced in the Huntsville plant from January to November 2009, the lead/strontium chromate pigment was reduced by 52,608 pounds, and the cyclic ketone usage reduced by 34,054 pounds. NPEP, part of the EPA’s Resource Conservation Challenge, a national effort to conserve natural resources and energy by managing materials more efficiently, is a partnership program focused on reducing the use of potentially hazardous chemicals from products and processes. NPEP partners like Dura Coat represent industry, municipalities, federal facilities and tribes that are reducing the use of and/or recycling toxic chemicals, including mercury and lead.