New waste water plant keeps Lano green

Lano Carpets has recently invested €350,000 in a new waste water treatment facility. Waste water coming from the dyeing department is buffered and treated with a flow of compressed air to reduce the biochemical (BOD) and chemical oxygen (COD) demand.

This process substantially improves the waste water quality indicators by up to 30% – a direct and positive effect on the environment.

The new plant is part of Lano Carpets’ ongoing strategy to reduce the impact of its woven and tufted carpet production and comes alongside several other initiatives as it strives to achieve ISO 14001 Environmental Management compliance by 2010.

In other areas, Lano Carpets is running an on-site programme to considerably reduce landfill as a result of its manufacturing processes. Lano Carpets now separates all waste into either recyclable or combustible fractions. This helps the manufacturer to maximise the recyclable fractions with the goal to reach a level of 60% of all waste output by the end of 2009. Any waste that can be converted into heat energy – combustible fractions – is reused as an energy source for the cement ovens.

The single site Belgian manufacturer has also established a formal action plan to reduce its CO2 emissions inline with the Kyoto treaty. This plan alone involves an investment of some €500,000 over the next four years and by 2012 will reduce the energy consumption of woven and tufted carpet production by 20%.

“Lano Carpets is constantly striving to reduce its impact on the environment,” commented Marc Vanslambrouck, engineer. “Whether through the treatment of waste water, recycling or reducing our CO2 emissions we are making every attempt to ensure that specifiers can select our carpets knowing that everything has been done to reduce their environmental impact.”