Friday, August 19, 2016

BlueScope has announced the winners of the BlueScope Environment Awards for 2016:

Environment Improvement Award - No 5 Blast Furnace Waste Refractory Reclamation Project - Ironmaking, BANZ Manufacturing

Environment Engagement Award –Community Waste Oil Collection Program - Pacific Steel, Fiji

BlueScope’s environmental objectives go beyond compliance. Our responsibilities to health, safety, environment and the community are integral to the way we do business.

Twenty environment engagement and improvement projects - known as STARs - were submitted for the 12 months to May 2016. The intent of the STAR process is to acknowledge environment achievements, and encourage others to adopt similar initiatives. 

The BlueScope Environment Awards are chosen from the submitted STARs and assessed against the commitment to Our Bond – ‘Our communities are our homes’ - and HSEC Policy – ‘We care for the environment’

Some notable environment achievements from the 20 STARs include:

• mitigation of community water and land contamination;
• reduction in pollutants discharged via process stacks;
• reduction in fresh water consumption by over 317,000 kilolitres per annum;
• segregation of waste to increase recycling and reduce over 1600 tonnes of waste being stockpiled annually:
• reclaiming over 1600 tonnes of iron skulls for reprocessing; and
• reduced energy consumption of over 112,000 gigajoules per annum.

In addition, these projects have led to other benefits for BlueScope, such as operational improvements and efficiencies and significant cost savings. Good environment management is good business.

A summary of the award winners follows:

Environment Improvement Award -  No 5 Blast Furnace - reclamation from waste refractory and trough waste  Ironmaking, BANZ Manufacturing

Situation - Waste generated during stave replacement program led to dust emissions at the Recycling Area.  In addition, Cast House Floor waste generated during refractory trough outages increased waste stockpiles.

Task - Reduce and reclaim or recycle stockpiled refractory waste.

Activity - A process was developed to manage Cast House Floor refractory waste, with sand, slag and iron skulls diverted to other locations, iron skulls and fines were reclaimed from the existing stockpile.

Result – Refractory waste sent to the recycling area has more than halved, resulting in a reduction of 1660 tonnes per annum being stockpiled.  Reclamation of the existing stockpile resulted in 1,596 tonnes of iron skulls being retrieved and recycled back through the process, and 4000 tonnes of fines being screened and stockpiled for future use; with total cost savings of approximately A$1.1 million. 

Environment Engagement Award – Community Waste Oil Collection program  Vishwa Reddy, Functional Manager, Pacific Steel, Fiji

Situation – Poor storage and handling of waste oil collected for reuse at the Fiji Rolling Mill led to land and water contamination

Task – Remove threat to the environment and community resulting from inadequate storage and handling of waste oil

Activity – Pacific Steel Fiji engineering team designed a tank for local businesses to store waste oil, free of charge; and the team distributed plans to help businesses construct wash bays.  Site Functional Manager also educated local business and community groups on the regulations for storage, management and disposal of waste oil, and the impact of pollution on the environment.

Result – Reduction in environmental risk from waste oil disposal, and greater community awareness of the risks, and the effect on the environment.