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Brochure - Formulator Initiative - EPA and Industry Working Together
Why is EPA Interested in the Cleaning Formulation Sector?
What is DfE's Formulator Initiative About?
What are the Benefits of Partnering with EPA?
Is My Company a Good Candidate for Partnership with EPA?
EPA Recognition Through Partnership
What Is Design for the Environment?
How Can I Get More Information?
Why is EPA Interested in the Cleaning Formulation Sector?
Each year, cleaning product formulators use billions of pounds of chemical ingredients. Ultimately, businesses and households release these chemicals to the environment in their waste water. EPA is concerned about the effect chemicals in the waste water might have on the quality of aquatic and sediment life, the biodegradability of effluents, and worker health and safety. Redesign of cleaning formulations offers an important opportunity to prevent pollution before it occurs and to advance energy efficiency and resource conservation.
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What is DfE's Formulator Initiative About?
The DfE Program offers partnership and recognition to companies that act as environmental stewards by improving the environmental profile of their products. Innovative and improved cleaning formulations contain ingredients with lower inherent toxicity, less bioaccumulation potential, less toxic byproducts and more rapid biodegradability. DfE partnership entails an ongoing relationship with EPA, formalized in a voluntary memorandum of understanding. EPA and partner companies work toward mutually agreed upon goals to improve the environmental performance of cleaning products and systems.
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What are the Benefits of Partnering with EPA?
- Access to information on toxicity, environmental fate, and physical-chemical
properties for thousands of chemical substances, and access to EPA's
assessment tools.
- Technical consultationwith EPA on chemical ingredients to help prevent
pollution and improve a product's environmental profile. DfE also offers
assistance in preparing written and other communications about the partnership.
- Public recognition of your formulation innovations and of your willingness
to work with EPA to achieve continuous improvement in products and processes.
- A cleaner environment and safer workplace by designing environmentally improved cleaning formulations. Your improved product or process may also reduce resource and energy use and enhance efficiency.
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Is My Company a Good Candidate for Partnership with
EPA?
"Yes" responses to the following questions indicate a strong foundation for partnership.
- Is your company dedicated to continuously improving its products?
Is it interested in consulting with EPA during product development or
redesign?
- Does your company have a strong environmental ethic and evidence of
good product stewardship practices?
- Is your company interested in developing a cleaning product with an improved environmental profile? In other words, a product that is safer for the environment and human health.
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EPA Recognition Through Partnership
A partnership with EPA reflects a company's commitment to achieve continuing environmental and health improvements in its products and services. The Agency would like to work with you on these goals. A DfE Partnership would provide your company with incentives for on-going improvement, internal measures of success, and opportunity for recognition.
Current Partners and Their Products
- Anderson Chemical Co., Litchfield, MN.
Partner since December 1997
Product: Total Impact Program (TIP)
- Cosmarc, Inc., Palm Harbor, FL.
Partner since August 2000
Product: Eliminator Plus
- Ecolab, Inc., St. Paul, MN.
Partner since May 1997
Product: TurboRev
- EnviroSmart Products Co., Chicago, IL.
Partner since September 1999
Product: Ultra Liquid Laundry Detergent
- GEMTEK Products, Phoenix, AZ.
Partner since August 2000
Product: SC-1000, SC-Laundry
- Noramtech Corp., Kansas City, MO.
Partner since April 1999
Product: Wash N' Bleach Extra
- Norchem Corp., Los Angeles, CA.
Partner since June 1999
Product: NUpHASE, MAXIMIZE
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What Is Design for the Environment?
The Environmental Protection Agency's Design for the Environment (DfE) Program is a voluntary, partnership-based program that works with companies to integrate health and environmental considerations in business decisions. DfE's approach to environmental protection emphasizes making changes and choices—in materials and processes—that prevent pollution before it is created.
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What if My Company is Interested in Partnering with
EPA or Just Wants to Learn More About the DfE Formulator Initiative?
Contact the Design for the Environment representatives listed below. They will explain more about the project and send you a copy of our Considerations for Partnership paper. If you think your cleaning product or program is a candidate for partnership, let's talk. The key ingredient in partnership is a willingness and interest in taking steps to improve the environmental profile of a cleaning product or process—and DfE want to help.
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How Can I Get More Information?
For more information on the Formulator Initiative, contact:
David DiFiore, 202-564-8796 or Mary Cushmac, 202-564-8803
or
send us a fax at: 202-260-0981
or
e-mail: difiore.david@epa.gov
or cushmac.mary@epa.gov
Design for the Environment Program (7406)
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC 20460
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