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Sustainability in Print
Solvent Management Best Practices for the Printing Industry
Workers in the printing and graphics industry can be exposed to solvents daily.
These solvents, while effective and often required for the job, can also pose serious health, safety, and environmental risks.
This article explores ways to better manage your solvent through a series of best practices in solvent reduction, handling, and recycling.
These best practices can improve worker health and safety, support your sustainability initiatives, reduce costs, and support compliance with emissions reporting.
Getting Started
A good place to start is with a solvent inventory. Document every solvent in use or in storage. Keep records of all solvent purchases, including:
- Product name
- Manufacturer’s information, including Safety Data Sheets
- Where and how the solvent is stored
- If there are any chemical interactions of concern
- How much you use for particular jobs
- How much you return as waste
- How much you recycle or recover
Safety and Health Considerations
Best Practices
Safety & Health considerations
Respiratory
For solvents, health impacts are measured in terms of toxicity ratings. These usually are called TLV (Threshold Limit Value), PEL (Permissible Exposure Limit), AEL (Assigned Exposure Limit) or similar terms.
Solvent vapors are generally assigned PELs that determine how much can be present in the air before it becomes harmful. TLV is the level to which a worker can be exposed during a shift without adverse effects.
While some solvents have a strong odor, others are odorless and colorless, leaving you unaware of the exposure. Solvent exposure can cause headaches or dizziness and can also affect your judgment or awareness. It can also build up in your body over time, resulting in long-term damage.
One of the best preventative measures is a ventilated workspace. Proper ventilation that reduces the solvent level in the air below PEL and TLV numbers is preferred over requiring employees to wear PPE for protection.
Skin and Eye Protection
Dermal exposure to solvents can result in health issues such as occupational skin diseases and systemic toxicity. Eye exposure can result in irritation and even blindness.
You should monitor the OSHA recommended and regulatory limits for all solvents in your inventory. PPE, such as a respirator, gloves, apron, and safety glasses, must be provided when needed. Also, consider if eyewash stations are needed.
Fire and explosions
Flammability and explosiveness are additional solvent hazards. You should know the flashpoint of solvents used in your work area. Flashpoint is the temperature at which an ignition source could ignite the solvent vapors.
While most workers know not to use open flames or cigarettes around solvents, they may not be aware of other ignition sources, like static electricity.
When you transfer solvent from one container to another, static electricity could create a spark and ignite the vapors. To prevent this, it’s a best practice to ground metal containers, creating a safe pathway to direct the static electricity into the ground. Both OSHA and the NFPA have bonding and grounding requirements.
Safety & Health Tips Roundup:
- Ventilation: Ensure you have a properly ventilated workspace. Use fresh air to dilute solvent vapors and exhaust ventilation to remove vapors from confined spaces. Remember that both fugitive and stacked exhaust may be subject to air emissions regulations.
- Grounding: Ground metal containers when solvents are being transferred and be aware of low flashpoints, which are more dangerous.
- Storage: Solvents and solvent-contaminated wipes should be stored in separate, sealed containers in a properly ventilated, fire-resistant space. Ensure fire extinguishers are easily accessible. According to the EPA Wipes Rule, you may not store soiled wipes or towels on-site for more than 90 days. Work with a certified laundry or waste handler to properly reuse or discard solvent-contaminated wipes.
- PPE: Personal protective equipment, such as a respirator, gloves, apron, and safety glasses must be provided as needed and should always be worn correctly.
- Training: Workers need to be aware of all the solvents being used on the jobsite, the steps they can take to protect themselves, and what actions should be taken in the event of a solvent spill or injury. Follow all safe handling information provided by your supplier.
- Minimize Risks: Eliminate ignition sources such as sparks, flames, static electricity, and elevated temperatures. Use best practices to reduce solvent vaporization by controlling spills, splashes, and spraying.
Best Practices
Choosing the Best Solvent
Choosing the right solvents for your needs involves several considerations including price, availability, function, safety, and environmental impact. In addition to minimizing risk factors, the solvent needs to work well for the task. If a solvent does not work well, too much may be used, or additional cleanup materials may be needed, which is wasteful.
Everyone wants environmentally better options. That would mean – no brominated, chlorinated, or fluorinated solvents and no solvents that contain Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs).
Work with your supplier to make the best choice. Investigate using solvents with low volatile organic compounds (VOCs), less toxic acetic acid solvents, or solvent alternatives such as detergent or soap. Identify the disposal or recycling alternatives of choosing one chemical over another.
Where available, purchase solvents from a company that will pick up and recycle the used solvent.
Be cautious when accepting free samples. If they do not meet your needs, you will be left with the problem of disposing of them. Ask the vendor to take back any unused samples.
Keep a Solvent Inventory
Take charge of VOC emissions reporting with a good inventory plan. Document every solvent in use or in storage.
Keep records of all solvent purchases, including:
- Product name
- Manufacturer’s information, including Safety Data Sheets (SDS)
- Where and how the solvent is stored
- How much you use for particular jobs
- How much you return as waste
- How much you recycle or recover
- How much evaporates
- How much leaves in water or other means
Tracking the solvent coming in is a lot easier than tracking the solvent going out. Printers often must rely on assumptions or estimates. You can use a printer towel solvent report to help you determine if you are over or under the allowed estimate and more easily identify where to focus your solvent reduction strategies.
Implement inventory control by preventing uncontrolled access and distribution of solvents.
Your solvent inventory and on-site observations will help lay the groundwork to develop objectives and measurable targets for safety, solvent reduction, and mass balance reporting.
Because some of your workers may encounter solvents frequently, they may not give much thought when it comes to solvent safety. Ensure that everyone who works with solvent is properly trained on how to use, store, and handle solvent at your facility and clearly understands the hazards (outlined below) associated with them.
Solvent Reduction
A good solvent plan will include methods to minimize solvent use. Once you know what you are using, where and how often you are using it, you can effectively track your reduction strategies.
As part of your management plan, review how employees use solvent in everyday tasks- spray, drip, wipe, dip, flush. Is regular preventive maintenance being done? Is the right chemical used for the task? Are wipes put in the correct container? Are wipes wrung after use?
Careful planning and extra employee training can reap huge benefits – including improved health and safety, pollution prevention, cost savings, reduced downtime, and less regulatory compliance.
Here are some helpful tips on how to reduce your solvent usage:
- Use solvents only when needed and use non-hazardous soaps and detergents where possible.
- Reduce press cleanup by dedicating presses to specific colors or use job scheduling to run lighter colors before darker ones.
- Install automatic blanket washers.
- Avoid soaking towels directly in the solvent. Instead, use pumps or squeeze bottles.
- Remove excess ink from surfaces with a scraper before wiping with a shop towel.
- Wipe surfaces clean before washing with solvent.
- Use precise measuring and pour in a funnel to reduce splashing or spraying.
- Keep storage containers tightly closed and away from heat to avoid evaporation.
Solvent Reuse
If solvent must be used, get creative with ways the solvent can be reused. If reused, the solvents are not considered to be wastes and, therefore, are not regulated.
Here are some ideas:
If solvent must be used, get creative with how the solvent can be reused. If reused, the solvents are not considered waste and, therefore, not regulated.
Here are some reuse ideas:
- Drain or mechanically wring saturated shop towels to remove excess solvent; recover as much solvent as possible for recycling.
- Reuse spent solvent for other cleaning applications, such as mopping. Start with the cleanest need and work your way to the dirtiest need.
- If you must pour solvent over a roller, use a drip pan underneath to collect the solvent that falls beneath and reuse that.
- Use recirculating solvent sinks for parts cleaning.
- Place basins around screens to capture chemical overspray.
- Partner with your supplier to see if they take back and recycle your used solvent.
- Partner with a reputable towel cleaning service company to clean your towels and recover the solvent. Ensure they process towels in-house and meet the requirements in the EPA Wipes Rule.
Storage, handling, and disposal
Workers should follow all guideline for how to safety store, handle, and discard solvent and solvent-contaminated wipes.
Work with your suppliers or a third party to properly recycle or discard spent or unused solvent. You can learn more here about how to determine if solvents are a hazardous waste.
Your solvent-contaminated wipes are not considered hazardous waste if you follow all the applicable compliance guidelines in the EPA Wipes Rule, which can be regulated both by EPA and your state agency.
Some of the basic guidelines in the EPA Wipes Rule include:
- Label all in-house and transportation containers with “excluded solvent contaminated wipes” labels
- Have a written description of how free liquid is kept out of transportation containers
- Know that your laundry has a permit for wastewater discharge
- Wring towels before placing in any container to control and eliminate free-standing liquid
- Keep lids closed on all containers of solvent-contaminated towels
- Consciously use only what you need
Training & Communication
A solvent management plan is only as good as the training and communication to support it. Put process controls in place to limit access to solvents and ensure that every worker that uses solvents or solvent-contaminated wipes has the proper training.
Reinforce your training with clear signs that support PPE requirements, warnings, and best practices.
Additional Resources
