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1st place in environment competition

First manufacturer of circuit boards to not produce waste water

For this extraordinary achievement of consistently manufacturing circuit boards without producing waste water, on 31st March 1999, CONTAG was ceremonially awarded 1st place in the environmental prize by Berlin's minister for the environment, Peter Strieder (the certificate is shown to the right here).

The company impressed the jury in the category "Environmentally friendly production processes". The prize was awarded to Mr. Contag by Berlin's senator for city development, environmental protection and technology.

• When manufacturing circuit boards, depending upon the complexity of the circuit, 20 to 40 process steps are required. A large number of these are chemical processes. These normally result in process waste and considerable quantities of waste water, which are typically treated extensively in waste water processing plants and are then returned to the public sewage network.
• By consistently optimising all processes, CONTAG has reduced the need for drinking water for washing purposes down to below 10% of the value typical in the sector. The waste liquids that then arise are almost exclusively process concentrates, which are collected by an external disposal company.
• For the very first time in our sector, CONTAG has implemented an operating concept that produces no waste water as understood under the law. This meant that on 6th October 1998, we officially ceased to be subject to the "Indirekteinleiterverordnung" law (German Environment Ministry act about the discharge of waste water into public sewage systems).

Facts:

• Process waste reduced by 30%
• Amount of process chemicals used reduced by 50%
• Washing water consumption reduced by 98%
• No requirement at all for environmentally critical process steps
• Product quality improvements
• Increase of cost-effectiveness in production
• No discharge of waste water to the sewage system Reduction of process times by 15%

Your personal contact

Guido Strehl
Assistant to the general
manager
+49 30 351 788-225
guido.strehlcontag.de