CASE STUDY No. 9631
KEY WORDS ACRYLICS--USE OF SCRAP, REGRIND
DuPont Excellence Center
N2514-1
Wilmington, DE 19898
Contact: Dawn C. Rittenhouse, Manager, Business Opportunities. Tel: 302-774-8588. Fax: 302-774-3140.
Summary
Through a corporate program that investigates environmental issues before and after production, the scrap rate of Corian, a patented product, has been drastically reduced by creating new markets for the material.
Action
Corian is a high performance, solid surface, acrylic material used for kitchen counter tops and bathroom vanities. The Corian management team continues to conduct a concentrated effort to minimize the environmental impact of business operations. New manufacturing technology has improved process yields, reducing the production of unusable material. Scrap and off-spec Corian, at one time destined for the landfill, now is used as the raw material for new product applications.
Although Corian is not toxic and remains inert and stable in a typical landfill, the company's concern about decreasing landfill space and rising disposal costs led to the search for innovative uses for an otherwise unusable material. Small Corian material cut-offs produced by fabricators can be collected and sold to craftsmen for conversion into such things as picture frames, clocks, coasters, chess sets, cutlery handles, watches, key chains, and pens.
A furniture manufacturer is using Corian for dining table tops. A company that produces epoxy-based flooring developed a new flooring material containing Corian particles. The end product is an epoxy floor with a Corian appearance. Another example: the "Sierra" line of Corian has a granite-like appearance. Formerly, the granite look was achieved from virgin material reground and added to the mix. After experimentation, a DuPont manufacturing team found that virgin material could be replaced with scrap Corian, and the finished product now contains up to 9% recycled stock.
Payback
In 1993, DuPont reduced landfill disposal of Corian by 3.5million pounds compared to 1992. Whereas the company once disposed of the material at 5¢ a pound, now it sells the scrap for up to $2 a pound. The Sierra line, containing 9% recovered feedstock, saves DuPont about $600,000 a year in raw material, grinding, and disposal costs, and reduces scrap to landfill by 1.3 million pounds a year.
DuPont's efforts have earned the company a special commendation from McDonald's Corporation and helped DuPont to become a preferred supplier to McDonald's, gaining DuPont a 90% share of the fast-food company's orders for countertops.
Additional waste prevented
Other components of the Corian solid waste management program include the return and
reuse of shipping pallets and the implementation of e-mail for correspondence related to
the product.