Talmolder has always been very active in reducing, reusing, and recycling; it always made good economic sense. Before Government agencies put certain restrictions on wastes destined for landfill, Talmolder had already begun looking at ways to divert waste.

We first targeted the largest bulk of our waste, and started diverting them into different areas. The majority of wastes were solids, foam trimmings from part deflashed, and other waste foam.

The foam waste is shred to a specified size, mixed with new unreacted materials and molded into a block. The end product is then sliced, cut, and used as inserts in other products that we manufacture.

Empty steel drums that we received some of our raw materials, were also destined for landfill, due to Government regulations prohibiting its reuse. We began neutralizing them and cutting the drums into specific sizes that could be picked up and melted back into raw steel. We also minimized the amount of materials received in steel drums and switched to reusable tote bins and Bulk deliveries by tanker truck.

A much more difficult area of waste for us to consider, was a solvent used to purge or clean the mechanical mixers which dispensed the foam solution into the moulds. Methylene Chloride is used because of its cleaning strength and its non-flammable properties. Once used and contaminated these were destined for liquid disposal sites because of the solids in suspension and its toxicity. This was very expensive. In 1986 we developed a safe method to distill contaminated Methylene Chloride. We were able to re use the reclaimed solvent and realize a substantial savings, without adding to the assault on our environment. We recover 70% of spent solvent that we purchase.

Along with our recycling programs, in 1992 Talmolder made a commitment to discontinue the use of Ozone depleting materials (CFC's) as a blowing agent in the manufacture of Integral Skin Foam. After assessing the options, we decided to switch to Pentane that had similar characteristics as the CFC's, and still produced a high quality Integral Skin Foam. The only problem with Pentane is that it is highly flammable and special precautions would be needed.

Pentane was being used in Europe successfully, and we were able to visit similar manufacturing companies there to share technologies. We adapted some of their methods and further developed them to meet North American Safety Standards.

In 1993, our processing methods with Pentane were patent, and we began full-scale manufacturing using Pentane as a blowing agent. We were the first in North America to successfully do so, and remained the only manufacturer until 1997.