Information Sharing Projects
WMRC is a national and regional leader in developing advanced information tools for environmental applications. This leadership role has positioned WMRC to coordinate two federally funded projects that provide decision-making resources to customers across the nation.
Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR)
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The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) provides pollution prevention information, research, and expertise. Services include specialized information searches, a quarterly newsletter, resource materials for small businesses, contacts and expert referrals, training and conferences, networking opportunities, and listservs. The Waste Management & Research Center coordinates the GLRPPR program.
Some of GLRPPR's highlights in the past year include:
- Two new topic hubs added to the Web site: Pollution Prevention (P2) and Environmental Security, and Technology Diffusion. The P2 and Environmental Security topic hub explores the synergies between the field of pollution prevention and environmental security (for example, using less hazardous materials in manufacturing reduces the risk of hazardous materials being released into the environment either accidentally or intentionally). This topic hub also provides suggestions for integrating environmental security and pollution prevention efforts. The Technology Diffusion topic hub introduces an approach to technical assistance that facilitates the adoption at manufacturing facilities of alternative technologies that reduce or eliminate waste.
- The quarterly electronic newsletter, LINK, now features stories on a particular pollution prevention theme, in addition to other news and updates from throughout the Great Lakes Region. Recent themes have included pollution prevention for food service and green building.
- GLRPPR began working with the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) to promote information on persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs) and the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (BTS). This is done via the GLRPPR Web site and listservs. The BTS is a joint effort of the United States and Canada to work toward the virtual elimination of PBTs in the Great Lakes Basin.
- A conference was held to bring together speakers, topics, and problem solvers in a number of pollution arenas. The summer meeting took place in Erie, Pennsylvania. Check out the resources available at www.glrppr.org.
Printers' National Environmental Assistance Center (PNEAC)
The Printers' National Environmental Assistance Center (PNEAC) is a partnership between industry, government, and university technical assistance providers to serve one of the world's largest industries—the printing industry. WMRC coordinates the PNEAC program that delivers current, reliable environmental compliance and pollution prevention information to printers, publishers, and packagers.
PNEAC debuted a new, comprehensive resource for flexographic printers this year. The Virtual Flexographic Printing Plant is an online resource designed to help flexographic printers determine their environmental compliance status and identify opportunities to reduce waste. This project has met with high acclaim within the printing industry. The project was designed to compliment the In-Plant Self Assessment workbook that was developed in 2003. The project was a collaborative effort of the Flexographic Technical Association and WMRC.
For the ninth consecutive year, PNEAC co-sponsored the Printing Industry Association's National Environmental Health and Safety Conference. The conference was held in Indianapolis, IN and was attended by some 250 printers and industry professionals.
On November 10, 2003, the U.S. EPA released a draft rule that addresses the management of solvent-contaminated reusable towels and disposable wipes. Because the use of towels and wipes is pervasive in the printing industry, this rule affects virtually every printer. Towels, wipes, and solvents are used for cleaning presses, ink cleanup, and a variety of other tasks. PNEAC has been helping businesses understand the proposed rule and participate in providing comments to EPA regarding it. PNEAC hosted two Webinars (Web Seminars) to brief printers and other stakeholders on the rule and solicited questions and comments about it. Information from those Webinars, as well as supplemental information about the rule, is available on the PNEAC Web site.
A variety of information and services are on the Web site at http://www.pneac.org/.
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