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Pollutant spills risk of leakage and consequences

Pollutant spills and leakages are an inevitable factor in the industry: all industrial activity is associated with recurring spills and larger accidents. Industries face two types of leaks: those related to usual activities, and those related to unforeseen or unavoidable causes: traffic accidents, equipment defects, and human error. In either case, the company must be ready to react. Pollutant leakages carry consequences:

Environmental and legal risks
Loss of time and efficiency (e.g. Extended equipment rental times, immobilization of logistic flows)
Risk of further accidents
Risk of corporate image deterioration

Companies aiming for operational performance must ensure employees and communities’ safety. The company will have to implement incident prevention procedures and acquire tools and products that will limit adverse health and environmental consequences of accidental spills. It is therefore imperative to take appropriate safety measures, in the form of control materials for prevention, cleaning and decontamination of leaks, which include: absorbent and neutralizing materials, protective clothing and accessories. Too often, companies have existing spill management procedures but lack professional equipment needed for on-site response. GREEN KEEPER AFRICA has several years of expertise in the field. We are here to advise and assist you in all stages of prevention and management of incidents caused by leaks or spills, as well as in the management of all post-spill activities. Such expertise enabled Green Keeper Africa to be identified by Briter Bridge as an innovative company in the field of industrial waste management https://briterbridges.com/innovation-maps. We are here to absorb your leaks and worries and allow your business to grow safely. For more information about our products and solutions please click here.

Absorbers

Absorbers are essential products for industries and must be included in all HSE departments’ arsenal. They can be of chemical or natural origin and can either be hydrophobic or not. Currently all absorbent products available on the African market are imported from Europe. GREEN KEEPER AFRICA is Africa’s leading absorbents‘ producer. We offer you a natural fiber, the GKSORB made from water hyacinth fiber, offering you high performance absorbance of all types of liquids, from dyes to crude oil and heavy fuel oil. In 2018, CEDRE registered GKSORB on the all-liquid absorbers’ list, as one of the best performing organic absorbers of its class, thanks to its 1200% certified absorption rate, free of over-pollution risks present in synthetic absorbers. GKSORB comes in different formats:

Fibers: absorb, hold and recover accidental pollutants‘ spills on ground or water and also clean floors, counter tops, tools and wipe hands, replacing wiping cloths. It is available in two formats: 1 to 2 cm long fibers and thinner fibers to clean gaps, for a perfect finishing touch.
Granules: resulting from the powder’s granulation process allowing to obtain different size granules ranging from less than 3 mm to more than 2 cm. The product’s ergonomics are excellent and allow maintaining remarkable absorbent capacities.
Cushions, puddles or carpets: different sizes, allowing customers to cope with all types of spills. Their use is preventive and/or curative.
Pads: thick towels for an even simpler user experience (product under development)

Leaks and contamination prevention

Prevention must be the first reflex to avoid/limit environmental, safety, health and economic impacts caused by leaks and spills. The prevention policy‘s 1st step is to "identify dangerous situations jeopardizing workers’ and environmental safety and health" (ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 standards) and to identify priority risks, with a view towards a plan of action. HSE analysis must be reviewed annually to take into account process changes, the effectiveness of improvement actions, changes in existing regulations and any new knowledge regarding risks. Each HSE risk shall be described and analyzed by means of a data sheet, which shall include:

Description of the risk or hazardous situation
Impact description, assessing consequences
Current regulations
Prevention and/or protection measures

Companies must have an absorptive capacity in line with their type of business and must put in place protocols for preventive absorption of recurrent spills and subsequent contamination risks. It is therefore important to select the absorbers best suited to your needs and to avoid using unsuitable products, such as sand, which is not an absorbent. For more information, please download the«User Training Guides ». HSE policy is an essential component of the company’s overall policy. It is therefore important for it to be integrated into the company’s daily life. This is why, in addition to offering you tailored solutions to existing problems, GREEN KEEPER AFRICA offers you upstream support services to help you set up an effective and comprehensive prevention policy and manage all post-spill activities.

Spill management

This depends on the type of spill, volume spilled, location and coating. However, the following steps must necessarily be followed:

Assess danger and mark the area
Equip employees with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Circumscribe the area with suitable absorbent material (bulk or buds)
Finalize absorption
Collect waste
Store waste in specific containers
- Renew absorbers’ supply

For more information please download the « User Training Guide ».

Waste disposal

GREEN KEEPER AFRICA has developed a turnkey solution known as "CYCLE GKA" for efficient destruction of oil waste. The chosen disposal route is incineration. GREEN KEEPER AFRICA receives fibers, cushions and oil-soaked balls on-site. It will then sort them, classify them, ensure final treatment by drying them and transport them to the disposal site. Incineration takes place in cement kilns, which work through a combination of electromagnetic filters, allowing the destruction of hydrocarbon waste under satisfactory conditions, provided that volatile heavy metal (mercury) concentrations are below permitted standards. "CYCLE GKA" turnkey service allows you to safely delegate every waste destruction step:

GREEN KEEPER AFRICA prevents and manages leaks directly at customer premises. After the procedure, waste is stored in a clearly identified waterproof drum.
Oil waste drums are collected from the customer’s premises and sent to a buffer storage site.
Once sufficient amounts of waste have been accumulated, allowing for buffer storage, they are then transported to the cement plant.

"GKA Cycle" can also be used for oil sludge management.

Standards and certifications

Certifications Certification is a procedure whereby a recognized organization, proven to be external to the enterprise, issues an official document ensuring compliance with standard management and process requirements. It allows companies to have additional competitive advantages, through improved control processes, and to strengthen its credibility with customers. The most common certifications are ISO Certifications, which mainly concern the company’s quality management methods. Main certifications are:

ISO 9001 certification concerning production processes or service and customer orientation.
ISO 14001 certification for environmental management
ISO 27001 certification for information security
ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Certification

For more information please click here. (Official ISO site) Standards UA standard is "a document defining requirements, specifications, guidelines or characteristics to be used consistently to ensure materials, products, processes and services’ suitability._{(Source : https://www.iso.org/fr/standards.html).} The most common standards are defined by the following organizations:

• ISO : International Organization for Standardization https://www.iso.org/fr/about-us.html
• AFNOR : French Association for Normalization https://normalisation.afnor.org/
• EPA : United States Environmental Protection Agency https://www.epa.gov/

The links above will allow you to check GREEN KEEPER AFRICA’s activities’ conformity with international environmental and quality management standards and to have detailed information on the latter.

International laws, regulations and treaties

We do have environmental standards in Africa, but the latter have been poorly met in the past, as shown by fertilizer-producing industries (BOAD 2014) and oil operations’ (UNEP 2011) reports. Most industries do not have solutions allowing them to recycle industrial waste in a satisfactory manner. Compliance with environmental protection laws remains a challenge, but since the late 1990s, we have seen the adoption of national laws such as: environmental framework laws for the implementation of new legal tools, notably allowing the application of the "you pollute, you pay" principle. Corporate managers are now under the obligation to prevent environmental offenses for which they can be held accountable, putting them at risk of financial penalties and damage to the company’s brand image.

Discover our depollution services

Bio-remediation ...

Description

Green Keeper Africa has developed a procedure for the remediation of polluted soils using water hyacinth as a raw material but also the addition of microorganisms necessary according to a precise protocol.