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Chattanooga area businessman making green impact in Ukraine

By: Brian Lazenby
(Contact)

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Douglas Dodd

A Chattanooga area businessman is spreading green technology to Eastern Europe in an attempt to help its citizens clean their water.

Douglas Dodd, president of Flintstone, Ga.-based EnWaste Recovery Systems, received a patent on a filtration system that removes silver and other hazardous metals from the photo-chemical process during radiology procedures.

Mr. Dodd said he has installed several filtration devices in Ukraine and is hopeful the Ukrainian health ministry will opt to purchase several of the silver recovery filters.

“We are a green company, and I couldn’t think of a better place to focus our entrance into the international market than in Ukraine,” he said. “Our mission in Eastern Europe is not just to provide a solution to water contamination but to raise awareness of hazardous waste streams and be a catalyst for establishing Environmental Protection Agency-type standards in countries where there are none.”

Ukraine is a likely market for Mr. Dodd’s product because it has a large population and more than 3,700 medical centers.

“They are not using this technology over there, so I thought this would be potentially a way of introducing this green technology and hopefully have an environmental impact,” Mr. Dodd said. “There is a real contamination problem in Eastern Europe.”

Teresa Chandler, director of radiology at the Cherokee Medical Center in Centre, Ala., said her department purchased a filtration device about a year ago.

“It is working great,” she said. “You don’t want that stuff going down the drain for sure. It is a big EPA issue and an environmental concern for us as well.”

Mr. Dodd said the filtration systems cost about $47 each and can be installed in about five minutes.

EnWaste Recovery System, a three-man operation, has sold about 5,000 filtration systems in Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and the United States.

Mr. Dodd said EnWaste employees will retrieve the recovered silver, sell it, and return proceeds to the customer.

“This will create some extra money for them as well,” he said.

Mr. Dodd said he will be traveling to Ukraine at the end of the month and soon will be setting up an office there to operate the business.

He also has formed a limited partnership and is seeking investors who will receive proceeds from the manufacture of EnWaste products.

“We do not want to go over there and be under capitalized,” he said. “That would be the worst thing that could happen.”

For more information, contact EnWaste Recovery Systems at 667-5097.

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