A bucket of paint has become a "Pathfinder" for transformation and upgrading

"The environment of the factory area and workshops has been greatly improved,and the air quality in surrounding areas has also seen remarkable progress,"factory workers and nearby residents have spoken highly of the renovation project for source substitution of oil-based paint carried out by Zhejiang Best Intenerated Pencil Wood Co.,Ltd.

Most industrial enterprises in our county are engaged in bamboo,timber and pencil manufacturing with small operational scales,making low-efficiency upgrading quite challenging.Source substitution serves as the most thorough and effective method to produce eco-friendly bamboo,timber and pencil products,advance in-depth VOCs(Volatile Organic Compounds)control,reduce ozone pollution and improve ambient air quality.

In 2020,the Qingyuan Branch of Lishui Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau took pencil manufacturers as the starting point to launch source substitution in the pencil industry for the first time.It selected three pilot enterprises including Zhejiang Best Intenerated Pencil Wood Co.,Ltd.,Zhejiang Daqian Art Supplies Co.,Ltd.and Zhejiang Aitejia Cultural Supplies Co.,Ltd.to carry out relevant source substitution work.

As a leading enterprise of oil-to-water conversion in Qingyuan’s pencil industry,Zhejiang Best Intenerated Pencil Wood Co.,Ltd.has invested heavily to introduce advanced German technologies since 2019 and independently developed water-based environmental paint and matching construction processes suitable for pencil production.With support and guidance from the Qingyuan Branch in the following year,the company invested 7.5095 million yuan in the oil-to-water source substitution project.It renovated 35 paint production lines and replaced 313.5 tons of oil-based paint at the source,cutting annual VOCs emissions by 116 tons to substantially reduce pollutant discharge from the source and improve ambient air quality effectively.Meanwhile,the source substitution project drastically lowered the output of hazardous waste such as paint residues and paint buckets;hazardous waste generation dropped by 72.9% compared with pre-renovation levels and the enterprise’s waste disposal costs were reduced accordingly.

Up to now,Zhejiang Best Intenerated Pencil Wood Co.,Ltd.has completed 70% of its source substitution renovation project.In the future,it will invest more funds to renovate all production lines and achieve 100% source substitution coverage.

Oil-to-water conversion not only cuts the enterprise’s energy consumption and management costs for pollution treatment,but also delivers economic,ecological and social benefits.To provide better support and guidance for enterprises,the Qingyuan Branch of Lishui Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau previously held a forum with members of Qingyuan Pencil Association.Third-party technical specialists gave explanations on coatings,processes,auxiliary materials and project packaging for source substitution.Three enterprises were guided to submit project applications with a total investment of 17.5693 million yuan and obtained central financial subsidies of 3.9819 million yuan.

At present,three pencil manufacturers and one cement enterprise in our county have implemented source substitution projects,which are expected to cut VOCs emissions by 180 tons.In the next stage,the county will promote source substitution in the bamboo product industry and actively plan centralized green island projects for auto repair spray painting to comprehensively strengthen VOCs governance and renovation across the whole county.