Iowa Waste Reduction Center (IWRC) services

The Iowa Waste Reduction Center has been providing free and confidential environment assistance to Iowa businesses for over twenty years. This has lead the IWRC to work with thousands of businesses in all 99 counties of Iowa. While specializing in Iowa small businesses has always been and will remain a strong focus for the IWRC, we have also expanded our expertixe levels to include working on a national level in the painting and coatings industry.

The Iowa Air Emissions Assistance Program has been running since 1992 through funding by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. This program offers assistance in determining permit status and helping businesses meet permit conditions. The IAEAP is similar to the OSR program in that a specialist can come to your facility and conduct an on-site visit to evaluate current air emissions, assist in completion of the Emissions Inventory Questionnaires, conduct workshops and presentations, and offer education and other guidance materials. Over 1,000 Iowa businesses have taken advantage of this program and over 2,000 air permits have been successfully completed.

STAR4Defense is a training and certification program for military coatings application technicians. Technicians attend a three-day training and certification course that includes classroom curriculum and hands-on training. This program has shown great results for new and experienced spray technicians by teaching appropriate coating preparation and application techniques. STAR4Defense training has proven to increase combat readiness, decrease corrosion and rework, as well as continuously improve overall finish quality. STAR4Defense has nine satellite training sites that are housed at military facilities across the Untied States.

The LaserPaint is one of the products the IWRC has developed for the painting and coatings industry. The spray gun attachment serves as a targeting tool that can be used by any technician at any point in the training or production process. When the spray gun is held at optimal gun-to-part distacne, two laser beams will converge to form a single dot which is projected onto the part being painted. THis distance can be adjusted to best suit any project at hand. When the two beams seperate, the spray technician is able to make the necessary adjustments in technique to maintain the single dot (optimal distance) and improve overall performance.

The VirtualPaint training system allows spray facilities to take training to a whole new level. This system allows the user to view and interact with realy spray equipment while simulating the actual application process onto a virtual surface. Using VirtualPaint is similar to training in a spray booth except results are faster and much more comprehensive. These results allow for analysis to provide continuous improvement.

IWE program is a cooperative effort of many agencies and organizations to provide Iowa business and industry with ways to redirect waste from disposal facilities and provide a means to recycle and reuse the material. The program helps businesses, schools, hospitals and communities save disposal money and protect the environment by reducing, reusing and recycling materials.