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A move by China to save the planet has delivered a price shock to the global shipping industry just as it was starting to emerge from its worst slump in almost a decade.
China manufacturers make 90 percent of all containers used on ships to carry all manner of finished products and commodities around the world. They're the workhorses of the global economy. As part of their pledge to cut emissions by 70 percent by the end of this year, these companies are coating containers with water-borne paints that release less toxic fumes than oil-based varieties before China starts levying a green tax in January 2018.
It's a noble effort—yet one that's delivered an unintended blow to the shipping industry. About 70 percent of container production capacity in China has been shut down as manufacturers retool their factories to allow for the usage of the new paints, sending prices soaring as much as 69 percent from last year's lows, said Teo Siong Seng, chief executive officer at Singamas Container Holdings Ltd., the world's No. 2 maker.
It's not just the container manufacturers shutting down to retool, but that the new water-based paint takes 20 hours to dry vs. 4 hours for conventional paints.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @10:11AM (13 children)
Fumes that are less toxic, or less of the toxic fumes?
(Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Wednesday June 28 2017, @10:33AM
Ambiguous indeed; but from context I would say fumes that are less toxic....could be both less toxic and a lower volume of fumes.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @11:30AM (4 children)
Is water vapor a fume?
(Score: 2) by WalksOnDirt on Wednesday June 28 2017, @11:37AM (3 children)
Probably not. A fume generally is considered to smell, and water has no smell.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @12:40PM (2 children)
I smell rain.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:28PM (1 child)
It's not the water you're smelling. You're smelling all the chemicals that are along for the ride with the water.
I love the smell of rain in late spring or early summer that's come off Lake Michigan. A good thunderstorm will also add a slight smell of o_3.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Thursday June 29 2017, @05:13AM
They may be talking about smelling the ozone. Prior to some storms, usually thunderstorms, you will have a high count of trioxygens. Those are three oxygen molecules that are bonded together. That only happens in limited conditions.
The smell is different because we're used to a greater number of molecules comprised of two oxygens bonded together. This may be what they speak of.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday June 28 2017, @11:43AM (6 children)
Both.
This is a gross simplification but paints aren't mere mud, they're kind of a dilute liguid plastic monomer and "drying" is when the monomers polymerize. And you don't want the paint drying in the can and it turns out the simplest "best" (well, maybe not best biologically or environmentally) chemical to stop polymerization is crazy organic chemical hydrocarbons. Turns out with a lot of chemical trickery you can use some water sometimes.
Note that changing the carrier and pigments to tolerate the thinner being 50% water or something doesn't imply you've modified the carrier and pigments to be less toxic there is no inherent linkage at all. So its at least 50% possible the dried paint is more toxic compared to the old dried paint. Is the general public more likely to be exposed to a manufacturing plant's paint department or a completed product?
Also with greenwashing laws I assure you these paints are not water, they're like 70% water 30% some hydrocarbon in some mayonnaise like consistency. Water based low VOC doesn't mean you can drink the thinner or should be breathing it either, it just means theres a little less thinner and a lot more water than normal.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:44PM (1 child)
Your chemical explanation is correct.
What the layman needs to know is: which paint solvent would you rather breathe -- paint thinner or water drying up?
The former can cause serious and permanent health problems in workers: neurological, pulmonary, etc.
The latter is harmless. The more non-water solvent you can replace with water, the better for everyone. To even think that somehow the (mostly) water based paint might be more toxic once dried than the old paint is ludicrous, though.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 29 2017, @12:26AM
Ludicrous does not mean "very possibly true," just incase that's what you're thinking it means.
Either form of finished paint can be more or less toxic depending on your choice of components (lead vs titanium, for example), but the water based paints have a much more restricted set of choices for components - so.... it is entirely possible to make a _less_ toxic finished paint product if you use VOCs instead of water for solvent - all else (primarily service life and cost) being equal. TFS already said that process cost is way up for water: 5x the drying time means 20% of the throughput in the drying facilities per square foot.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday June 28 2017, @05:33PM
In summary, the Chinese container makers will be exposed to less fumes, and anyone licking container in dockyards may get more toxins...
Until those containers get repurposed for housing units (for trendy and/or poor humans, or for fish after a storm), it sounds like a win for everyone.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 29 2017, @12:20AM (2 children)
And, here I was thinking they were going to do something with real long-term impact like improved paints that lengthen the lifespan of the containers, or (before the summary loaded) maybe improved bottom paint that uses less fuel underway...
I'm sure the container factory workers will appreciate the reduced VOCs, but in the bigger picture, the other 7 billion of us might be more negatively impacted if this new paint allows the containers to rust out more quickly.
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday June 29 2017, @11:30AM (1 child)
That is real green engineering as the environmental damage of manufacturing a ton of finished steel is enormously higher than the environmental costs of a quart or two of solvent release, but greenwashing has never resembled real environmental engineering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 29 2017, @10:27PM
You might appreciate it if you were the poor bastard who had to work in the paint plant.