Environmental & Legislative Advocacy

Anodizing Industry

AAC monitors and, as needed, advocates for the interest of aluminum anodizers in light of often confusing and potentially damaging regulatory requirements. Because of AAC’s long-standing dialogue with U.S. EPA, anodizing is now generally recognized as an industry distinct from electroplating and other metal-finishing operations. The legal representation required to get to this point would have been too expensive for any one company to afford. Because of those efforts, we are now recognized as having a finish that is uniquely compatible with today’s environmental concerns. The Advocacy and Government Affairs Committee is the Council’s advisor on regulatory and legislative developments: alerting members and representing their interests, promoting environmental stewardship, and communicating the environmental advantages of anodizing to all users of aluminum product.

Another AAC Success Story

During the last decade, the Council successfully won recognition for the anodizing industry as being distinctly unlike electroplating subsequent to the US EPA’s attempts to revise wastewater effluent guidelines and pretreatment standards in ways that would have increased costs substantially for the anodizing industry and, in all likelihood, driven many smaller anodizers out of business. Because of the Council’s success, anodized aluminum is recognized as a finish that is uniquely compatible with today’s environmental concerns. The technical and legal representation organized by and through the Council was more comprehensive and effective than would likely have been achievable by most any single company alone. Once again, the combined and unified voice of the anodizing community was focused through the efforts of its Council.