MonierLifetile.com - Company: Environmental Activities

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Environmental Activities

MonierLifetile's Environmental Activities

As MonierLifetile evolves in our complex and changing business environment, the Company is modifying its operational practices to be even more environmentally sensitive.

Concrete roof tile, made from basic raw materials, has long been an integral part of sustainable-built structures. So what is changing? Though waste minimization has long been a priority in the company, it is now being taken a step further. Operational changes are being made to allow reuse of process wastes such as reject tile and wastewater and put them back into the manufacturing process. To this end, MonierLifetile has installed both wastewater and reject tile-recycling systems into multiple manufacturing facilities, investing millions of dollars to achieve its goal. By 2007, all MonierLifetile plants will have fully operational wastewater and reject tile-recycling programs in place.

Wastewater generated from waste slurries, wash water, or other process is now vacuum filtered and then both the water and the solids from the treatment are used in the manufacturing processes. Similar systems are in the majority of our plants.

The reject tile crushing system involves material being passed through a vibrating feeder that sifts out non-tile material and larger pieces of tile discards. It then crushes and screens the smaller pieces of reject tile until proper particle size is achieved. Once the reject product is crushed and screened to its finest level, it is re-entered into the regular production process for reuse in new product. Larger pieces of discard tile that are sifted out in the first part of the process are manually reduced to a smaller size before being introduced back into the first step of the process. This material, previously a reject, returns to the process and saves new or "virgin" material from being used, and prevents the reject product from being carted off to landfills. Economics do not warrant that all manufacturing facilities contain such systems and regional processing of reject tile is in practice.

Each plant in MonierLifetile is being targeted for similar water treatment systems and for recycling regionally, as noted above. Through its membership in RTI (The Roof Tile Institute), MonierLifetile is encouraging other companies in the industry to initiate or increase their recycling activities.

Our newest facility, located in Denver, CO was designed from the ground up to be environmentally friendly. The future will take us further as the long-term evaluation of additional recycling efforts is underway. These include ideas such as crushing other reject material, such as normal concrete and reintroducing it into our systems; developing alternative markets for use of our crushed concrete to prevent a new material from being required; and a system allowing contractors to return MonierLifetile product when buildings are demolished for re-incorporation into new tiles.

In addition to our recycling efforts MLT is also leading the industry in other environmental areas. Current projects include:

Replacement of petroleum based products with vegetable based products.
Testing more environmentally friendly raw materials.
Recycling our wastewater back into the product.
Installation of better air pollution control equipment.
Elimination of waste materials through reuse and better production practices.

MonierLifetile's future remains open to possibilities, but one thing is sure, environmentally conscious programs will be an integral part of it.

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