CHAPTER V

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

This chapter includes Social Economic Benefits, Social, Political and Ethical

Considerations, Health and Safety, the environmental impact assessment and

mitigation measures.

A. Social Economic Benefits

The project, Oxobiodegradable polyethylene manufacturing Plant would help

build opportunities for the economic benefit of the community. Since, _________ has at

its levering economic growth. It would also create more jobs wherein the residents at

the community will be the primary beneficiaries. Tax base diversification and new capital

investments would be one of the social economic benefits since the project would be

one of the highest tax contributor in the province. These benefits would be from the

point of construction and continually expand through the operating life of the plant.

B. Social, Political and Ethical Considerations

Oxobiodegradable polyethylene is highly recognized because of its wide

range of usage and advantageous additive in plastic production. The considered

strategic decisions will affect the community and the people. Decisions will be

based on the changing policy of environmental impact assessment, social

movements, and the challenges of risk management.

 Decisions must be at its safe zone where it must be legal. The operation

should work in accordance with the laws and regulations. Following the national

government laws must be properly observed.

The common shared values observed in the society will be the basis for

the Ethical decisions particularly on the operation being executed. However, the

strong ethical issues are not implemented to pressure those employees to meet

the said performane quota. Instead, its purpose is to prevent actions that are

prohibited based on the ethical violations. Employees engaging on community

work volunterism, trainings and mentorship will greatly contribute to social

responsibility.

C. Health and Safety

This section provides basic guidance for health and safety that is applicable

to all industries, including issues such as risk assessment, health and safety policy

statements and involving the workforce. All employers should have plans in place to

manage health and safety.

In your workplace, it is likely that your staff are doing tasks that expose them

to risk like on using equipment, machinery or working at height. As an worker, you

should look at work tasks / activities and consider like who might be harmed, how

they might be harmed, what measures you currently have in place to prevent this

and whether these measures do enough to stop people being harmed. Worker
 involvement is an important part of managing health and safety. Your workers are

often the best people to understand the risks and help find solutions.

PPE

Safety is a major issue for day laborers and skilled laborers. Each year,

accidents happen frequently in the construction industry and often times it is due

to the absence of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or failure to wear the

provided PPE. PPE is equipment that will protect workers against health or safety

risks on the job most especially on the plastic industry. The purpose is to reduce

employee exposure to hazards when engineering and administrative controls are

not feasible or effective to reduce these risks to acceptable levels. These hazard

risks can be anything from wet floors to falling debris and everything in between.

PPE includes items such as protective helmets, eye protection, high-visibility

clothing, safety footwear, safety harnesses and, sometimes, respiratory

protective equipment.

Safety and Health Inspections

Safety and Health Inspections is one of the vital factor on safety, health and

environmental protection programs that will give a critical but reliable method of

identifying the current status and conditions that may be a potential hazard that can

cause accidents in the workplace. A validated inspection is execute during the

construction and operation phase of the polyethylene place. It is the effective way of

inspecting since it does not conform a set of schedule, plan or checklist. A Joint safety

and Health Committee will conduct inspections as part of their functions.

 Machine Safety

Inadequate machine guarding is important in any industry, but perhaps even

more so in plastics processing, where machinery is especially complex. The

combination of high temperatures, high voltage and a multitude of moving parts can

potentially cause serious safety concerns. Just for an example at the Horizontal

Injection Molding Machines. From time to time, operators may need to remove plastic

parts or loosen parts, which is scenario #1 for potential hazards. To prevent injuries,

make sure there’s an operator’s gate. This will keep operators from accessing moving

parts while the machine is in production mode. While most hazards from thermoforming

machines which is scenario #2 occur when the extra-large and heavy sheets of plastic

are being fed into the machine itself (roll handling). In this case, safety measures are

focused on the material handling equipment, not the thermoforming machines

themselves.

Fire and Safety

Fire mitigating facility is developed in the manufacturing plant. As plastics

increasingly replace other materials in many plastic manufacturing projects and plants,

the company are striving to make their products as fire-resistant as possible, primarily in

applications where flame spread needs to be limited, such as ventilation ducts and wall

claddings on escape routes within public buildings. Firefighting equipment will be

frequently tested and check in a span of at least four months. As well with the
employees will undergo training, drills and reviews or refreshments of the safety drill in

case of fire.

D. Environmental Impact Assessment

Pressure on natural resources

Excessive / unmonitored use of water and energy incorporated and utilized

during the process of turning the raw material into the end product. A system of

Minimize facility footprint will serve as resource utilization economic optimization system

for operations and processes to minimise energy and water usage. The inefficiency for

some amount of resource loss or waste will be minimize.

Air Pollution

When plastic is produced, it’s made from toxic materials such

as benzene and vinyl hydrochloride. It is destined to be toxic from

birth to forever. These chemicals are known to cause cancer, and

the manufacturing byproducts contaminate our air and soil. The

type of plastic that is the major source of dioxin is PVC.

Solid Waste
 These includes the waste production and inappropriate disposal. Hazardous

waste will be collected and stored at specific identified area at site. Separate

authorization has been obtained under Hazardous Waste Management Rules to

handling the hazardous waste generated.

Liquid waste (production and disposal)

This inludes discharge of contaminated wastewater, accidental discharges to

stormwater (e.g. contaminated firewater), discharge of hot water.

Noise

Possible high noise levels from certain plastic a metal processing operations.

Noise management plans includes noise prevention (e.g. through process changes) or

abatement techniques (e.g. soundproofing) will be implemented on the manufacturing

plant.

E. Mitigation

The table comprises of the summary which includes the possible risks during the

construction and production/manufacturing phase of the plant.

Risks Controls/ Mitigation

Pressure on natural resources - Minimize facility footprint - optimisation

excessive / unmonitored use of water and of operations and processes to minimise

energy Atmospheric emissions energy and water usage

 Pollutants (NOX, SOX, CO, CO2, etc) Emissions management

 Greenhouse gas production  Use of Best Available Techniques

 Dust and noise  Not Entailing Excessive Costs

(BATNEEC) in emission stack

Solid waste (production and disposal) –

waste production and inappropriate  design, development of emissions

disposal inventory, implement air

Liquid waste (production and disposal) -  quality monitoring and wastewater

discharge of contaminated wastewater, treatment design

accidental discharges to stormwater (e.g.

Greenhouse gas emissions / climate
contaminated firewater), discharge of hot
change offset programmes - phase out
water
of ozone-depleting substances

Employee Health and Safety - e.g.

Waste management - waste
exposure to hazardous chemicals:
minimisation, re-use and recycling;
carcinogens such as asbestos, dust and
appropriate waste disposal techniques
noise; unguarded machinery; fire and

explosion risks; ergonomics issues Transport, storage and handling plans

- implement safe product shipment,

storage and handling practices

Emergency preparedness and spill

prevention plans – develop and

implement Spill Prevention and

Response Plan including provision of spill

response equipment and trained

personnel