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NPEP Success Story
Embraer Recycles Spent Fluorescent Bulbs, Replaces with Lower-Mercury Content Bulbs; Recovers and Recycles Cadmium
Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services, Inc. (EAMS) is an aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility located in Nashville, Tennessee. EAMS has approximately 325 employees. The facility consists of three large hangars, primarily used to perform MRO services for Regional Airline customers.
Embraer acquired this facility in 2002 and is now expanding their MRO services by adding three satellite repair facilities. These facilities are located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Mesa, Arizona, and Bradley Field, Connecticut. The facilities will support the corporate customers that utilize the Legacy and Phenom aircraft, small executive jets manufactured by Embraer, Brazil. EAMS’ customers are largely comprised of the commercial aircraft industry and regional aircraft carriers.
Embraer’s
NPEP Goal
EAMS is environmentally conscientious and makes every effort to protect the environment. EAMS set cadmium and mercury reduction goals. EAMS set an NPEP goal to recycle cadmium waste. NPEP's Mercury Challenge allowed EAMS another opportunity to reduce impacts to the environment by recycling spent fluorescent bulbs and installing the Green Tip fluorescent bulbs, which contain lower mercury contents.
Waste Minimization Results
At present we recycle over 100 bulbs every quarter and on average replace 400-500 bulbs per year. The spent bulbs are collected in closed containers and sent to a recycling station located in Alabama. All bulbs throughout the facility have been changed over to the lower mercury content bulbs and will be replaced within the next two years with the energy efficient bulbs, which have a three year life span. We estimate that recycling 500 bulbs eliminates 25 grams of mercury from entering the environment. The low mercury bulbs should reduce mercury on an annual basis another 10 grams.
The second part of our success story was to recycle or recover cadmium used in plating processes. Embraer in Nashville generates approximately 1200 lbs. of cadmium waste per year, which historically was disposed of as a hazardous waste (generally incinerated). The chosen method that we have implemented is to recycle the cadmium, by removing the cadmium particles from the rinse water, which was used during the plating process. This cadmium material is sent back for reclamation and is reused as it reenters the commodities market. We estimate the total sent back for reclamation was about 900 lbs of cadmium.
EAMS also recycles nickel cadmium batteries used in Aircraft and smaller batteries used in flashlights, such as re-chargeable type batteries. The recycling of hazardous waste is a driving force for EAMS. In the future, as an active environmental partner, we will do our part to conserve resources and preserve the environment.
Lessons Learned
Looking forward we have learned that recycling helps the environment and helps to keep costs low for the consumer.