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37
Effluent
Scope: this indicator concerns only factories. The
distribution centres do not discharge any waste
water other than that resulting from the normal
activity of an inhabited building (sanitary waste)
and are not therefore included in this indicator.
In the majority of its factories, L’Oréal pre-treats waste water
before sending it to local treatment plants. However, all the
waste water is tested before being sent to such plants or discharged
into the ecosystem.
COD – Chemical Oxygen Demand (1)
n Total COD waste
in tonnes
t
9,000
7,500
6,000
4,500
3,000
1,500
0
6,213
I
1999
6,771
I
2000
6,889
I
2001
COD waste per finished product
in grams
7,269
I
2002
8,019
2.1 2.1
2 1.9 2.1
I
2003
tx
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Raw material storage areas
(1) Chemical oxygen demand (COD) – the amount of oxygen needed to oxidise all the
pollutants contained in the effluent – is the value commonly used to measure the properties
of waste water.
Initiatives
The Rambouillet plant in France has a novel water treatment
plant. Instead of treating the waste water using first a physico-chemical
then a biological process (the usual technique), it
performs only the biological (bacterial) stage, combined with
an innovative filtration process.
This technique has the benefit of avoiding the production of
sludge, caused by the use of the reactants required for physicochemical
treatment, and of increasing the total purification
capacity of the plant by the same amount.