Going green to beat stubborn substances

Companies take steps to cut out chemicals

In many cases, companies are finding it's in their economic best interest to "green" up their processes.

M/A-COM, a Lowell-based division of Tyco Electronics, for example, is in the process of redesigning the "guts" it makes for cell phones and communication radios so they will no longer contain lead.

"It's good business for us," said Steve Hanlon, who is in charge of the company's toxic waste reduction efforts. "It makes good sense."

Lead poisoning has long been associated with paint in old houses, but lead is now commonly used as solder in many electronic devices. Scientists fear discarded lead-containing electronics will gradually end up in landfills, where there is a potential for the lead to leak out and pollute drinking water, said Gregory Morose of Haverhill, who is the project manager for the New England Lead-Free Electronics Consortium.

M/A-COM has found a way to use tin and a tin-silver-copper alloy in place of lead, which will allow the company to continue selling its products in Europe after the new regulations restricting lead and other substances take effect next year, Hanlon said.

The alternatives have been difficult to develop, he said, and even harder to sell to some of the company's customers because they lack lead's reliability history. But the upside is tin actually doesn't cost any more than lead, he said, and in the long run, going through this process positions the company to be ready in the future if and when nations like China, Japan and the United States choose to join Europe in regulating particular chemicals.

"I don't think, in our company at least, there has been difficulty in convincing the different groups within M/A-COM that this is a good idea," Hanlon said.

At the most fundamental level, the reason many chemicals hang around in the environment and in our bodies is because their basic chemical structure makes them persistent.

In 1991, a few chemists launched an idea called "green chemistry." Their mission is to tweak these chemicals to make them less persistent.

"In the same way you can design it to be blue or soft and elastic, you can design it so it doesn't persist," said Paul T. Anastas, director of the Green Chemistry Institute of the Washington, D.C.-based American Chemical Society.

One of the main centers for green chemistry is the University of Massachusetts Lowell, professional home of John Warner, one of the early researchers in the field.

"There's some fabulous green chemistry going on in your area," Anastas said. "There's no doubt that Lowell is leading the way."

Among the green chemicals already on the market are:

* Biodegradable plastics made from polylactic acid

* Spinosad, a pesticide derived from a soil bacterium

* Sea-Nine, a biodegradable antifouling agent for ship hulls

"For every wonderful green chemistry solution, there's probably 100 that have yet to be looked at, yet to be invented," Anastas said.

A proposed federal bill called the Green Chemistry Research and Development Act of 2005 would increase funding for such research.

— Julie Kirkwood