P2 Industry Newsletter – October 2025

Note from the Editor

Dear readers,

Happy October! As we step into a new season, we’re excited to share fresh opportunities to help you advance sustainability and pollution prevention efforts at your facility. In this edition, don’t miss our Pollution Prevention Tip of the Month, a quick action you can take now to save both resources and costs.

We also invite you to explore our upcoming technical courses and free webinars listed at the end of this newsletter. Whether you’re interested in energy efficiency or environmental compliance, there’s something valuable for every sector.

If you’re attending the Environmental Stewardship Initiative Conference at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh, stop by our exhibitor table tomorrow — we’d love to meet you in person and discuss how we can support your sustainability goals.

Thank you for being part of this growing community. Let’s make this season one of progress and practical action!

Marly Irby, PhD; Pollution Prevention Specialist at the Center for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering at East Carolina University.

Did You Know?

Essential Foreign Industry Minerals are being Found in US Mines

Image Credit: (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

Recent research shows that the United States already mines nearly all of the critical minerals it needs for things like clean energy, defense, and advanced technologies, but most of these minerals are currently being thrown away as waste. Minerals such as cobalt, germanium, and rare earth elements are often present in ores that are mined for other metals like copper and zinc, yet they go unrecovered because the technology or economic incentive to extract them isn’t in place (Colorado School of Mines, 2025). According to Holley et al. (2025), recovering even just one percent of these by-products could significantly reduce U.S. dependence on imports, and a recovery rate of ninety percent could eliminate the need to import most of these materials altogether, apart from platinum and palladium. The study suggests that focusing on recovering by-products from existing mines could be a more sustainable and efficient solution compared to opening new mining operations. However, achieving this will depend on developing new technologies, conducting more site-specific research, and creating policies that make it financially worthwhile for mining companies to invest in by-product recovery (Holley et al., 2025).

Pollution Prevention Tip of the Month

Sequence Your Chillers for Maximum Efficiency

image credit: Paul Evans, The Engineering Mindset

The chillers in manufacturing facilities are one of the biggest energy users. The cooling demand is not the same throughout the year. During the summer, loads are high, and in the winter cooling demand often drops. However, most chillers don’t adjust to these changes, and plants end up running multiple units at partial load. It is recommended to always operate the Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) chiller first. The VFD will adjust the compressor speed to meet the cooling demand, lowering energy and water use and reducing peak demand. Turn on additional chillers only when the cooling capacity exceeds the VFD chiller’s limit.

Thank You for Stopping by Our Booth at the ESI Conference!

We had a great time connecting with everyone at the Environmental Stewardship Initiative (ESI) Conference on October 9–10 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. A big thank-you to all who stopped by our table to learn more about ECU’s Center for Sustainable Energy & Environmental Engineering (CSE3). We truly enjoyed hearing about your work and discussing how we can support your facilities through pollution prevention strategies, technical assistance, and training opportunities.

We were especially proud to see one of the leading companies in our region, Hyster-Yale, presenting on their pollution prevention projects. Their presentation highlighted the impactful results achieved through the P2 internship program we coordinated in collaboration with ECU’s College of Engineering. The student interns we placed at their facility helped identify key opportunities for cost-saving improvements, including air leak detection in compressed air systems and transitioning to LED lighting, resulting in significant financial and environmental benefits. It was inspiring to see these student-led efforts showcased at a statewide level.

Our team is excited to continue the conversations and explore future collaborations. If we didn’t get a chance to connect (or if you’d like to follow up), please don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we can keep driving meaningful environmental impact across North Carolina’s manufacturing sector!

News & Updates

Michigan’s Great Lake Removed from Binational List of “Areas of Concern”

Image Credit: Garret Ellison, gellison@mlive.com

On October 1, 2025, the EPA, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), and several local partners celebrated a major environmental win: Muskegon Lake has been officially removed from the list of Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes region. Once considered one of the most polluted sites due to decades of industrial waste and habitat destruction, the lake has undergone years of cleanup and restoration projects. These efforts that were funded by roughly $47 million from federal, state, and local sources helped remove contaminated sediment, restore wetlands and shoreline, and significantly improve water quality. Beyond environmental gains, the cleanup is already boosting the local economy, increasing tourism, property values, and recreational activity. This milestone shows the power of long-term collaboration and investment in restoring natural resources for future generations.

Read More about Michigan’s Great Lake

Upcoming Events

Free Webinar: Septic System Failures Help and Prevention in South Carolina

Course: Using Environmental Regulations to Drive Sustainability and Pollution Prevention in Manufacturing

InstructorMyrna Pacheco
Senior Environmental Engineer at Bridgestone

• Time: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
• Date: October 17, 2025
• Location: East Carolina University, Isley Hub Room #167

This technical course provides participants with a general overview of major air, water, waste regulations as well as pollution practices relevant to industrial facilities. From the outset, you’ll be guided through each regulation, establishing a framework for the rest of the course. You’ll learn how these regulations apply to your organization and explore practical compliance and pollution prevention (P2) strategies that you can implement at your facility. By the end of the day, you’ll leave with valuable resources to help maintain compliance and support your sustainability goals.

Registration for this event has passed
** Anyone registered to our online course alternative will be able to access the course for two weeks post-event. **

Free Webinar: Energy Management – A Pathway to Carbon Neutrality

• Time: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM EST
• Date: November 13, 2025
• Location: Via Online (MS Teams)

Join us for our upcoming webinar, where we’ll dive into strategies and best practices to reduce energy use and emissions through smart facilities and operational decisions.

Registration for this event has passed

Guest SpeakerKaterina Dimovski, M.Sc.El.Eng.
Katerina Dimovski is a Project Manager for Energy and Sustainability Services at Georgia Tech’s GaMEP, specializing in energy management systems, sustainability strategies, and process optimization for manufacturing industries.