And now the lop-side of galvanizing, whether in part or in entirety :
- All of the different chemical baths used during the galvanizing process
present multiple sources of waste
- The pickling bath used in the preparation process consists of
hydrochloric acid (HCl). The acid becomes more dilute and less effective
with use and must be dumped out and refilled once it becomes too
dilute to be effective. Spent HCl is classified as hazardous waste and
must be treated accordingly.
- If the steel has not been cleaned enough or if there is carry-over from
the previous flux solution, lead and other elements can precipitate out
into the galvanizing bath. These contaminants are another source of
waste, and they lower the effectiveness of the galvanizing solution.
Eventually, there is too much precipitate for the solution to be effective,
and it must be dumped out and refilled. Used galvanizing solution is also
classified as hazardous waste.
Some actual events that happened in U.S of A due to galvanization :
- South Atlantic used to send some of their waste to Environmental Quality (EQ) North Carolina, an old solidification/stabilization facility in Apex, North Carolina. A chemical explosion caused the facility to burn down in 2006, and the resulting chemical haze was so hazardous that residents had to evacuate to Cary, North Carolina until the air was safe to breathe again.
- Once 2,700 acres of farmland, Chemical Waste Management in Emelle, Alabama is now one of the nation’s largest hazardous waste dumps. One third of the people in the town live below the poverty line, and 90% of the people living directly near the dump are African-American.
- In 2004 and 2005, both the vice president and the plant manager of US Liquids (USL) City Environmental Inc. in Detroit, Michigan were sent to prison for conspiracy. The plant was charged with violating the Clean Water act for sending untreated waste into the Detroit River.
I like cars and love driving, but more than anything I love nature and what we call our home.. this earth. These points are merely food for thought, I'm not opposing people's rights to deserve an automobile of good quality and durability. Sometime down the line though, just like the popular press and public at large suddenly jumped to the notion that diesels may not be as clean as they were thought out to be, this too might be a cause for concern. Automobile industry which is an amalgamation of the best of plastics, leather, wood, aluminium, rubber, iron etc.. is among the most resource-hungry industries on earth. I'd like to repeat once more that, being a part of an automobile forum.. I have no problems when people's expectations are high for a particular vehicle as they spend good money on it, sometimes additional processes may not be all that they're cracked up to be. On the business side of things though.. even the manufacturers are fully correct in doing so.
http://www.bredl.org/pdf3/south_atla...alvanizing.pdf
As has always been stressed before.. balance is key.