BUSINESS BRIEFS
ERCO going mercury free
Advertiser Staff and News Services
CHICAGO — Yielding to years of pressure from environmental groups, one of the nation's largest mercury polluters will stop using the toxic metal and switch to cleaner technology.
But the 200 tons of mercury on hand at the ERCO Worldwide chlorine plant in northern Wisconsin could end up on the world market and drift back to contaminate lakes and rivers. ERCO announced last week that it will convert its chlor-alkali plant outside Port Edwards, Wis., to a mercury-free manufacturing process in 2009.
DUNKIN' DONUTS EXPANDS COFFEE
BOSTON — Starting this month, packaged Dunkin' Donuts coffee will be sold by the likes of Wal-Mart, Kroger and CVS in a bid to get customers to brew the brand at home, not just pick it up at Dunkin' outlets.
For Dunkin', the retail distribution deal with Procter & Gamble Co. is about more than just getting existing restaurant customers to buy the packaged version while grocery shopping. It's about introducing the New England-bred brand to new customers in the West and South where Dunkin' is expanding, with plans to triple U.S. stores to 15,000 by 2020.
ALLIANT RECEIVES MOTOR CONTRACT
SALT LAKE CITY — NASA has awarded defense contractor Alliant Techsystems Inc. $1.8 billion to develop a motor for the Orion capsule, which will replace the space shuttle and be able to reach the moon and Mars, the company said.
The first-stage propulsion system will lift astronauts solely with solid fuel instead of a combination of solid and more volatile liquid fuel, the company said in a news release Friday. Orion will be the Apollo capsulelike replacement for the 26-year-old space shuttle fleet that is supposed to retire in 2010, after completion of the international space station.
