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In-process
environmental protection, as we call it, means organizing our production
methods in such a way that emissions are, where possible, totally
avoided - thus leading to a minimum of waste gases, wastewater and
solid waste to be disposed of. Our use of solvents is a good example.
In many cases, we are able to recover solvents after they have been
used in a chemical reaction and feed them back into the production
process. Using products several times becomes cost-effective through
the reduction of disposal expenses. In-process plant safety means designing processes so that they run as safely as possible. Our handling of phosgene is an example of this. This reaction product is required for the production of polyurethanes and polycarbonates, which are two of the most frequently used classes of plastic in the world. In order to protect employees and the neighboring community from the possible dangers associated with phosgene, we have a series of safety measures built into our production process. We only produce as much phosgene as is required for further processing. In order to keep the amount of the dissolved gas required for production as low as possible, excess gas is channeled back into a closed cycle. All of these measures, integrated into production, are enhanced by further safety measures. As stated in our Guidelines for Responsible Care in Environmental Protection and Safety, our policy has the same priority at all of our sites, regardless of whether they are in industrialized or industrializing countries. It
speaks for itself that we also aim to use our resources as productively
as possible, and not only because this brings cost benefits.
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