As far as the dangerous waste is regarded, the continuous adoption of stricter legislation has created a significant motive for the use of less toxic chemical materials. The need of treating the produced toxic waste is reduced by minimising the use of materials such as hexavalent chromium and cyanide means of cleaning and deoxidation.

Before substituting a raw material, the existence of available substitutes should be examined, as well as the influence of the new material on the quality of the products. Moreover, it should be tested if the substitute can face the problem without creating a new one and if it influences the productive and economical performance of the process.

The majority of the components' substitutions are related with modifications on the composition of the coating baths or with the substitution of chemicals that are used in specific processes. Thus, the water used for refilling the baths can be substituted by de-ionised or distilled water.

In the decorative chromium plating, the hexavalent chromium can be replaced by the trivalent chromium in order to reduce the volume of the drag-out, as the baths of trivalent chromium are characterised by lower viscosity and lower metal concentrations.

Moreover, the production of toxic waste can be minimised by using non-chelated complexes, substituting the cyanides with less toxic compounds and using alkaline substances, for the desinfectation of the surfaces that are going to be coated, instead of solvents .