Royal Pyrotechnie going green

The Authorization Criteria allows a maximum noise level of 140 decibels within 5 meters for consumer fireworks.

There does seem to be a market for low noise fireworks. 140 decibels does not seem the same thing as low noise.

All the fireworks I import from China are made of recycled paper and paper by its nature will decompose. The low quality paper and paperboard used fireworks in China is made from mostly imported paper waste.

Perchlorate is an environmental issue only if the runoff from cleaning at the factory is not controlled. Burning fireworks effectively destroys the perchlorate. Here is a link to a study of a lake at Epcot center (Disney) that had 2000 fireworks shows shot over it. There are some metals from the fireworks that end up in the lake sediments but only slightly elevated levels of chloride and nitrate. Chloride would be a combustion product from perchlorate.

usfireworks.biz/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/WSL@Epcot-1982-1992.pdf

It is difficult to make colors without perchlorate unless you use chlorate which is not allowed in Canada. Colors can be made with metal fuel, nitrate and a chlorine donor but they tend to not have as good color as perchlorate formulations. I think the environmental impact would not be better than perchlorates. The chlorine donor would deposit a small amount of chloride the same as perchlorate.

All of the environmental damage from perchlorate is from factories that disposed of perchlorate waste on the ground. There is a Bristol Aerospace Rocket plant near me that has to pump millions of gallons of water out of the aquifer into drying ponds every year to mitigate the spread of perchlorate in the aquifer.

When the Chinese say Black Powder that just means the color of the powder is black not that it is made from Potassium Nitrate, Sulfur and Charcoal. Most Chinese Black bursting powders contain Potassium Perchlorate and Charcoal and sometimes some Nitrate and sulfur. Shells that have a flash powder burst contain Potassium Perchlorate and a metal powder.

The only place I have seen potassium nitrate, Charcoal and sulfur black powder used in Chinese fireworks is in lift powder, fuses and priming. It probably is used for burst in some fireworks but every Chinese burst powder formulation I have seen has perchlorate in it. Varying the perchlorate content controls the power of the burst. Many consumer fireworks use both nitrate and perchlorate in the burst.

While I do what I can like recycling, trying to use less fuel and trying to generate less waste a fireworks company has a hard time being green. Fireworks are products that are shot into the air and burned for entertainment.

There is really very little environmental impact from fireworks. This is not because using fireworks is in any way eco or green. It is because the volume of chemicals used by the fireworks industry is very small compared to the rest of industry. Also when these chemicals are released into the environment the concentrations are so low that they have no measurable lasting impact on the environment.

I have been asked about the environmental impact of a fireworks show. My answer is that it is nothing compared to the pollution caused by all the people driving their cars to the show.