What Should We Do With Our Solvent Waste?

Solvents are used in a great variety of industrial and manufacturing processes, from printing and manufacturing, to electronics and machining.  

Solvents are used for their superior cleaning and curing properties and most industry professionals agree that there's no substitute to be found to replace solvents in such applications as coating, line flushing, reactor cleaning, stabilizing, degreasing, and parts cleaning.

Yet the use of solvents doesn't come without a responsibility to our environment.

People and businesses who generate solvent waste, which is actually regarded as hazardous waste, have a "cradle to grave" solvent environmental liability regarding its safe disposal.

Because solvents have no substitute in many industrial processing applications, the question most companies are asking is not whether or not to use solvents, but what should we do with our solvent waste?

Let's discuss the various options that exist, and help you understand which options might be best for you.

What Solvent Waste Treatment Options are Available?

Currently, the available options for solvent waste disposal include:

1. Disposing of solvent waste off-site for rotary kiln or incineration destruction
2. Shipping solvent waste to a treatment storage and disposal facility for solvent recovery
3. Investing in an on-site solvent recycling and solvent recovery system

Basically these three options may be combined into two categories:

1) off-site solvent disposal or recycle solvent waste

2) on-site solvent recovery or solvent recycling equipment

If you generate a small waste stream; produce infrequent waste, are operating a short-term process, or are operating a pilot process, off-site disposal may be the most cost-effective option for you since the amount of waste generated is insubstantial to justify recovery.

However, if you generate continuous waste, you are almost certainly under regulatory and economic pressures to explore a recovery or recycling option—one of which you may already to using.

In fact, some environmental agency directives require that you reduce your waste stream through off-site recovery or on-site recycling. Moreover, both solvent recovery and recycling are clearly more cost-effective and environmentally correct than total destruction and solvent repurchase.

Maratek Environmental Inc. has proudly served industrial manufacturers who produce hazardous chemical waste and solvent waste such as printing, photofinishing, silver and paint related manufacturers for over 40 years.

Maratek corporate offices are located in Bolton, Ontario; about 15 minutes north of Toronto. Maratek Environmental Inc. 60 Healey Road Unit 8-10 Bolton, ON L7E 5A5 Phone: 905.857.2738 Fax: 905.857.2764 Toll Free: 1.800.667.6272 www.maratek.com