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| Commitment to the care of the environment |
Aluar firmly believes that the care of the environment is fundamental to ensure the welfare of present and future generations.
The care of the environment is a key issue in the company's management. Thus, Aluar is committed to:
· Perform its industrial operations within a sustainable development process, in such a manner that the economical growth, social progress and environmental protection requirements are all taken into consideration in the decision-making process and in the management of the company.
· Undertake all appropriate actions to comply with and/or anticipate all pertinent legal environmental requirements and systematically evaluate the compliance of this action, by means of adequate indicators.
· Train its employees in the efficient use of the resources available and to be knowledgeable of the environmental effects of their tasks and the operations they perform and/or manage.
· Put into practice and maintain an Environment Management System, certified by a third party, according to the requirements of ISO 14001 standard. This System establishes a continuous improvement process of the environmental performance of the organization,
See ISO 14001 Certificate
Main measures for environmental protection
The protection of the environment in the production of primary aluminium, places special concern on two main issues:
In order to minimize the impact of these issues, Aluar has incorporated up-to-date technology, to be able to produce aluminium without adverse impact on the environment.
These control measures consist in:
Gas Treatment Centers:
These installations retain gaseous and particulate fluoride emitted by the electrolytic cells and its efficiency is in the order of 99%. Alumina is used as the absorbing material (alumina, or aluminium oxide is the raw material required to obtain aluminium). This alumina is later used to feed the electrolytic cells, recycling the pot emissions. The treatment capacity of the Gas Treatment Centres is three million cubic metres of gaseous effluents per hour.
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Air Monitoring
Aluar has installed an air quality monitoring network to evaluate the impact of fluoride emissions to the atmosphere throughout the Puerto Madryn region. Each of the ten air quality permanent sampling stations is made up by the following: a bubbling device that contains an absorption liquid which retains the fluoride that may be present in the atmosphere, a vacuum pump used to force the passage of air, and a gas meter to determine the volume of the air sampled.
The results of this monitoring show that the values measured are below all applicable environmental quality guidelines.
See Air Monitoring Network
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Safe disposal of solid waste in specially designed landfills
These 10,000m2 landfills have been built within the premises of the plant, at natural soil level and surrounded by a 1m pit slope. Solid waste, especially spent potlining that contains sodium fluoride, is deposited in these landfills.
To avoid liquid waste, that is caused by rainwater, reaching the ground water, the landfills are built with compact layers of different materials (calcareous soil, clay, fine sand) and a geo-membrane of synthetic material between layers, that acts as a barrier to the liquid waste.
Ground water is monitored permanently through a series of perforations around the landfill.
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Note: For further information related to Aluar's environmental protection policy, please write to: medioambiente@aluar.com.ar
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