EPA issues guidelines for recycling of foundry sand

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has published “The State Toolkit for Developing Beneficial Reuse Programs for Foundry Sand,” which is designed to help create markets for the millions of tons of waste sand produced by the U.S. foundry industry each year. The sand is used to form molds for cast metal and then discarded, consuming valuable natural resources and landfill space.

According to EPA, the waste sand is not hazardous and could be used in roadbeds, construction fill and cement manufacturing. However, market and regulatory hurdles imposed by many states prevent all but 10 percent of this discarded sand from being reused.

The toolkit can be obtained for free online at www.epa.gov/sectors/metalcasting/foundry.html.