New Jersey Releases New Industrial Solvent Cleaning Rules

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has adopted new requirements that impact screen and digital printing facilities that use cleaning solvents.  Any facility that purchases for use more than 855 gallons of industrial cleaning solvents, in aggregate, during any 12 consecutive months is impacted by this rule.

Screen Printing:

Screen printing facilities that meet this threshold requirement must use only industrial cleaning solvents that have composite vapor pressures equal to or less than eight millimeters of mercury (mmHg) at 20 degrees Celsius; or solvents with a maximum VOC content of 500 grams per liter.  There is also an option for screen operations to install, operate, and maintain, in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations, air pollution control equipment that reduces uncontrolled VOC emissions to the atmosphere from industrial cleaning by an overall control efficiency of 85 percent or more.

Digital Printing

The NJ Department exempted solvents used for the cleaning of digital printing operations from the VOC content limit since very little solvent is used to clean the parts.  Digital printing operations that meet the threshold of using more than 855 gallons of industrial cleaning solvents, in aggregate, during any consecutive 12 months then the following best management practices and recordkeeping requirements apply. For more information, please contact SGIA's Government & Business Information Department at govtaffairs@sgia.org.