The Governor's Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Pollution Prevention have been presented since 1986. GE Superabrasives was one of five recipients to receive the Award in 1993. Governor George V. Voinovich presented the seventh annual awards on December 9, 1993. These awards recognize outstanding commitment to improve Ohio's environment through pollution prevention. Evaluation criteria for the awards included: the overall effort to reduce waste at the source, recycle or recover materials, or conserve energy; soundness of approach; cost- effectiveness; ability of the program to serve as a model for others; and effectiveness in promoting prevention as the preferred long-term approach.

What is Pollution Prevention?

Pollution prevention is the use of source reduction techniques to reduce risk to public health, safety, welfare and the environment and, as a second preference, the use of environmentally sound recycling to achieve these same goals. Pollution prevention avoids cross media transfers (of wastes and/or pollutants) and is multi-media in scope, addressing all waste and environmental releases to the air, water and land.

GE Superabrasives

The associates of GE Superabrasives, Worthington, Ohio, were recognized for their voluntary awareness, involvement and outstanding achievement in pollution prevention. The plant's Pollution, Waste and Emissions Reductions (POWER) Team, accompanied by the support of all employees, has enabled GE Superabrasives to implement extensive pollution prevention activities.

In 1955, the GE "Diamond Team" made history by creating the first industrial diamonds, an achievement that established the company's technological excellence in the field of superabrasives. Today, GE Superabrasives is the world's leading manufacturer of industrial superabrasive products such as: industrial diamond for sawing, grinding and drilling; Borazon Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) for the grinding of ferrous materials; and Polycrystalline for machining, drilling and turning. GE Superabrasives is also a leading manufacturer of the Chemical Vapor Deposition Diamond, which is used in the electronics industry.

Pollution Prevention Activities

GE Superabrasives associates' commitment to the environment is demonstrated in the many pollution prevention, waste minimization and recycling activities they have voluntarily implemented. Prescribing to the EPA preferred waste management hierarchy of source reduction, recycling, treatment and disposal, GE Superabrasives has successfully eliminated thousands of pounds of hazardous and non-hazardous waste from their waste stream and has also recycled thousands of pounds of solid waste.

GE formed a Waste Minimization Task Force and its POWER Team in 1989 and 1990, respectively. Members of these groups were selected from all areas of the facility to assess pollution prevention opportunities. Plant-wide participation is achieved through subcommittees, proper education and communication, well-marked recycling bins and an employee suggestion program. The POWER task force conducts workshops with shop managers and process engineers to prepare annual mass balances for all shops. Mass balances are a foundation of the plant's pollution prevention activities, permitting GE Superabrasives to focus on source reduction, set up programs and priorities and track successes. The facility's solid waste stream has been reduced by 40% (10,926 tons to 6,256 tons), compared to 1988, saving the company over $350,000 since 1988. An average of 1,000 tons per year of material from 1990 to 1992 has been recycled, resulting in a savings of another $100,000 per year.

GE Superabrasives has accomplished the following pollution prevention successes:

• Sara III total releases have been reduced by 56% in 1992 compared to the 1987 baseline.
  
  
• Ethylene glycol was replaced by propylene glycol and a sedimentation recycle system was designed and installed to reuse the coolant.
  
  
• Bromine (an extremely hazardous substance) was completely designed out of the manufacturing process.
  
  
• A CFC Task Force, networking with other Ohio industries to locate water soluble cleaning agents, phased out the use of freon and trichloroethane by December 1993.
  
  
• Nickel reportable releases were down 25% compared to 1987. An 18 month, $1.3 million project built an on-site nickel recovery system. A reduction in nickel releases of 85% is expected along with a 1100 ton reduction in filter cake landfilling.
  
  
• Sulfuric acid has been separated from the waste stream and shipped offsite to another GE site that can use the spent sulfuric acid as an incoming raw material.

Looking Ahead

GE Superabrasives will continue the POWER Team and Pollution Prevention Teams in order to reduce SARA III emissions further by the end of 1994. GE will attempt to maximize the utilization of acids, optimize the newly installed nickel recovery process, evaluate additional nickel bearing streams and perform additional stream separation on these nickel bearing streams. The company also plans to reduce solid waste by recycling ceramic wastes. GE also plans to develop programs to reduce or recycle copper coating solutions.

For More Information

Stephen J. Zehala, Senior Engineer
Facilities & Environmental Programs
GE Superabrasives
6325 Huntley Road
Worthington, OH 43085
(614) 438-2249

This document is one of a series of information circulars Ohio EPA has prepared on pollution prevention. For more information, call the Office of Pollution Prevention at (614) 644-3469.