ATLANTA – Manheim has activated one of the world’s most advanced wastewater treatment systems in the remarketing industry, which will reduce Manheim Auto Auction’s water demand at its reconditioning center by 60 percent. The Water Conservation Center is a cornerstone element of Manheim “Go Green,” a companywide conservation effort designed to reduce overall water dependency and improve processes associated with business operations, including vehicle painting, detailing, and waste management.

Manheim Water Conservation Center, designed in partnership with Ashland, Inc., treats 42,000 gallons of wastewater and produces 25,000 gallons of high-quality reusable water per day. Annually, the system will extract 68 tons of contaminants from wastewater, the weight equivalent of 12 male elephants, enabling Manheim to return treated water to the municipal water treatment system in a pretreated condition.

Also as part of “Go Green,” Manheim has implemented several cleaner air initiatives, including waterborne basecoat painting, paint mix management, and waste management that, combined with its wastewater treatment solution, will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 200 tons annually.

Manheim intends to measure the effectiveness of all its “Go Green” initiatives and adapt as necessary to ensure objectives are being met. An early example of this is Manheim’s work with DuPont to design and implement the exclusive use of waterborne basecoat painting at this recon facility. Through this alone, Manheim expects to reduce air pollutants by 40 percent.

Also at its Pennsylvania facility, Manheim has launched a new paint mix management process that will reduce air pollutants by 10 percent and adopted a new waste management process that selects, recycles, and handles waste materials like motor oil and antifreeze in an environmentally conscious manner.