Torrid History of Agricultural Feedstocks in Manufacturing Before Bissel & Drake made the first successful petroleum oil drilling rig in Titusville Pennsylvania (1859) (1), the vast majority of industrial feedstocks came from agricultural and animal products. Examples include: linseed, castor, tung, tall and soybean oils; natural rubber, gums and starch and cellulose. (2) In 1941, […]
Topic Areas Category: Materials and Waste
A “Dumpster Dive” Could Save Your Job
“Dumpster Diving” is a recycling concept to show what is not being properly sorted either on the shop floor, or in the facility’s waste management process. Originally, it was used as a way to start a recycling program in a company that had not previously done any recycling. It is now commonly used: First, more […]
Increase Recycling Revenues with 7 Lean Techniques
1. Mixed Material = Poor Revenues Case-in-point: one company’s efforts to separate out the valuable recyclables from the trash created revenue of $5,000 per year, and offset their cost of hauling the remaining non-recyclable wastes. Sort waste streams as close to the point of generation as possible to keep waste streams pure and reduce the […]
