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Ears remain perked towards Copenhagen as the United Nations Climate Change Conference draws to a close. Climate change and the environment are topics about which we're all concerned, especially considering the potential financial effects they entail.

EDS continues to investigate methods and materials that will lessen our negative environmental impact. The coatings, thinners, and sealants we use have a limited shelf life, and in a given year, about 250 lbs of these materials expire according to manufacturer's standards. The question remains about what to do with these materials once they have expired.

Great care must be taken to dispose of them in a manner that complies with environmental and hazardous material regulations-improper disposal increases the risk of chemical seepage into the surrounding environment and ground water, which could have disastrous effects on community health and safety. For coatings (including paints), environmental regulations dictate that the materials must be in a solid or cured state before being put into a landfill. Instead, EDS prefers to give them to Safety-Kleen, a leading environmental recycling/reclamation firm.

Why do this? Recycling and reclamation firms are experts in responsible waste management and disposal, so partnering with them guarantees that we dispose of our waste in the safest manner possible. The added benefit is that Safety-Kleen recycles and re-purposes our expired materials, using them to create a specialized fuel used to power cement kilns. This not only reduces the material put into our landfills, but also facilitates to a greener way of doing business-something we can all appreciate.

While we use coatings with low volatile organic compound (VOC) ratings, and our waterproofing and restoration services help to eliminate energy waste, our decision to partner with a recycling/reclamation firm enables us to do even more to better our environment. EDS is committed to improving our planet.