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In a followup to a story previously on Soylent News: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/05/17/022243
It seems that at least part of an unexpected increase in CFC-11 (an ozone depleting chemical) is due to small factories in China manufacturing the chemical for use in making Styrofoam insulation for refrigerators. The normal alternative, HCFC-141b is expensive and in short supply. The illegal factories are set up, run for a time until discovered and then move to a new location. In addition to being cheaper, CFC-11 gives a better foaming action than the ozone safe alternative.
"You had a choice: Choose the cheaper foam agent that's not so good for the environment, or the expensive one that's better for the environment," said Zhang Wenbo, owner of a refrigerator factory here in Xingfu, in Shandong Province, where he and many other small-scale manufacturers said that until recently, they had used CFC-11 widely to make foam insulation.
"Of course, we chose the cheaper foam agent," Mr. Zhang said during an interview in his office. "That's how we survived."
As it happens, a crackdown was underway in the town and moments later, four officials entered Mr. Zhang's factory, handed him a leaflet warning against a range of environmental violations, including using CFC-11, and ordered his factory closed.
"They never told us until last year that it was damaging the atmosphere," Mr. Zhang said. "Nobody came to check what we were using, so we thought it was O.K."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/world/asia/china-ozone-cfc.html
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday June 27 2018, @01:25AM (1 child)
Sad thing is that that's pretty much the corporate default most places. In the U.S., lots of companies dump huge amounts of random chemicals into the environment, many of which have only had limited testing. CFCs have been known to be a serious environmental problem for decades. But long-term effects of random chemicals, possible non-degradation and/or bioaccumulation, etc. are rarely studied before huge amounts of many chemicals are dumped. And when some chemicals become a standard part of a business and companies even discover potential hazards internally, they rarely take adequate action. (E.g., consider the PFOA debacle with DuPont that's got so much attention in recent years.)
I'm far from a chemophobe. I think many folks overreact to a lot of concerns about "chemicals" and get taken in by stupid labels about "natural" or "organic" or whatever ingredients that are sometimes useful and sometimes meaningless. Nevertheless, there are all sorts of industrial chemicals that we're literally swimming in, drinking in, etc. now... and some are bound to have serious issues.
But the corporate stance (and often the government one too) is mostly reactionary -- not proactive in recognizing potential harm. Ignorance -- either accidental or willful -- is common.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 27 2018, @02:52AM
Machine shop we worked with used to put their waterjet cutter sludge into the flowerbeds. EPA called them on it, made them stop and also remove what they had spread around on the ground. Owner was a typical Rush Limbaugh fan and bitched up, down, left and right about how it's just "inert ruby dust, EPA bullshit asshole etc. etc." Guys in the shop were a little more balanced in their reaction, sure - it's mostly inert ruby dust, but it's also bits of the aluminum, steel, and whatever else we happened to be cutting. A few years earlier, one of them took the used material and mixed it into his driveway concrete for the red ruby sparkle effect, which he got, but he also got a massive dripping rust stain running all down his driveway, the gutter, and into the storm drain. Cheap bastard could have paid a few bucks to get the sacks of unused cutting material, but instead he opted for the "free" waste material and made a mess of his driveway and street.
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