5 Reasons to Recycle Solvents in the Present Day World
As companies look for cost savings, they are increasingly looking for ways to reuse solvents rather than discard them.
Many manufacturing companies rely on solvents. Not recycling them means higher processing costs and a negative impact on the environment. When companies store their solvents on site, they avoid the cost and liability associated with shipping hazardous chemicals offsite, plus they avoid paying a toll processor or an incinerator.
Unlike a toll processor, when you use a dedicated waste solvent recovery system, it’s for one specific task — recovering waste solvents generated on site. This means you won’t have to worry about your solvents being contaminated with unknown substances.
The benefits are clear: In addition to being less expensive, recovering solvents on site leads to better quality control.
What is Solvent Recycling?
Solvent recovery is the single most effective way to improve your solvent usage, cut costs, and protect the environment. But what exactly is it?
In a variety of different chemical use cases, there is a need to recover solvent for reuse. In most cases, the solvent is one of the less-polar compounds present in a chemical mixture and can be recovered from the other components by distillation. Recycling can reduce the need to produce new materials, eliminate a lot of waste and remove hazardous substances from what’s left.
Why is it important to recycle solvent instead of disposing of it?
Recycling waste materials is beneficial for the environment, profitable for companies (if done right) and can save you money.
Solvent recycling is an alternative to solvent waste removal. It can reduce solvent purchases by over 95% and reduce chemical waste disposal cost by over 90%.
Quick Look: Why is it Important to Recycle Solvent?
- Create a Circular Economy
If you want to save money and reuse your cleaning solutions, then you should get a solvent recycling machine. It’s better for your bottom line.
- Boost business brand
If you have a solvent recycling program, your organization will be better able to meet its sustainability goals. Companies that divert waste from landfills also boost their businesses’ reputations, since their actions can be used as evidence of their commitment to high standards and public trust.
- It’s the right thing to do
It’s quite simple. We’re moving away from mass manufacturing and production without accountability. If your business has not already made steps towards sustainability then the time is now. We don’t have to go into the details of pollution and why it’s important to recycle and reuse as much as possible — because you’re already aware of the importance.
5 Reasons to Move Towards Solvent Recycling
1. More Cost Effective
The number one reason for owning a business, in any industry? Making money. We don’t have to dress it up with fancy notions- it’s all about the bottom line.
Regardless of what you do, profit is king. One of the most important factors in your decision-making should be whether you’ll make more money if you pursue a project or not. If you want to maximize your profits and become more profitable without adding any costs or processes, consider having an on-site solvent recycler installed. Your company can benefit from a solvent recycler to achieve a number of different things. A solvent recycler can help you save money on your maintenance costs, cut down your floor time and allow you to reduce your carbon footprint- all while making more money.
Since virgin solvent is very expensive, it makes sense to bring processing closer to home. Why waste money on a new batch when you can reuse your old one? Solvent recycled from old batches is cheaper than virgin solvent, but of comparable quality.
When you make use of an on-site recycler then you save on shipping costs too. On-site solvent recycling eliminates transportation costs of waste solvents being sent for disposal. You can now reclaim your lost money and put it toward other necessities.
Because the on-site recycler only takes a few minutes to complete each day, you reduce the amount of payroll you’re paying your staff for tasks like collecting and delivering solvent.
Once you introduce on-site solvent recycling into the operations of your business, you will be able to identify all of the unnecessary purchases you have been making. This will allow you to drastically cut your monthly expenses.
Investing in capital goods such as a solvent recycler will allow you to produce much more at a much lower cost.
2. Improved Quality
While it used to be that companies made products solely out of raw materials, the reality is that there are fewer raw materials. Therefore, companies are using recycled material to make everyday household products.
The recycling process has become so sophisticated that it’s difficult to tell the difference between a product made from recycled material and one made from virgin materials.
The same is true for recycled solvents. The quality of recycled solvents is on par with virgin solvents- if not higher. So if recycling solvents instead of using all virgin solvents is cheaper, and the quality can be at least the same if not better, then it becomes a no brainer.
When ordering new solvent, it’s not unusual to worry about whether the supplier is adding impurities. Although quality control is usually used, we cannot always rely on the supplier to follow the system.
This creates a risk for impure solvent usage. And this isn’t good for your equipment. Using an impure solvent will eventually harm your equipment, increasing the need for maintenance and replacements–– high expenses that can damage all businesses.
Additionally, you know how important it is to offer a reliable service to your customers. If you’re never sure of how contaminated your solvent is, you won’t be able to provide consistency to your customers. When you choose to use an on-site distillation unit for your waste solvent, you take charge of quality and can be certain your solvents have a higher quality consistency.
Ultimately, recycling solvent is a more cost-effective way of consistently obtaining high-quality solvents.
3. Its a Cause of Convenience
Supply chains can often create a series of headaches, whether it’s an unstable supplier, inconsistent quality from contaminated solvents being delivered, or a global pandemic halting supply chains altogether. What if you could dramatically minimize these risks to your business? Investing in an on-site solvent recycler allows to cut out many of these risky reliances and to rely on in-house procedures to get the job done, in a fraction of the time, cost, and with plenty less headaches.
4. Minimise Liability
It’s important to recognize that you are responsible for the hazardous waste you produce until it reaches its final resting place for the final stage of hazardous waste disposal.
If you ship your solvent waste, you will be fully responsible for clean-up or any incident that occurs while it is in transit. If you spill anything during the process of transporting it to the disposal facility, or store it in tanks for an extended period of time before disposing of it, you’ll be responsible for all damages. If any of your waste leaks or spills, you are 100% liable for the infraction.
Not only does such a fine affect your finances, but it negatively affects your reputation. This increases your risks of getting in trouble again and again. If you let this happen, the EPA and other environmental advocacy groups will keep an eye on what’s going.
Being accused of an environmental infraction is a huge reputation hit, and can lead to more fines.
A company can avoid huge fines and a tarnished reputation by reclaiming waste solvents on-site.
5. Reduce Waste
In today’s world, it is incredibly clear that the behaviors that are good for the environment are also good for business. Governments have been increasing carbon taxes to encourage people to reduce their environmental impact. Businesses of all kinds will need to adapt if they’re going to be successful in the future. The act of taking steps to reduce your carbon footprint will undeniably contribute to the success that businesses see in the future. There are a number of factors that contribute to a company’s =future success, and many of them will be directly affected by their environmental practices. Reducing one’s carbon footprint will contribute to one’s success.
How Solvent Washer can benefit your industry through its solvent recycling machines
Investing in a recycling system with Solvent Recycler can benefit your business in the following ways:
- Reduces the need to purchase new solvents
- Reduces and simplifies regulatory reporting
- Minimizes on-site storage of hazardous wastes
- Pays for itself (thanks to the recovered product) within a matter of months
- Disposal costs are dramatically reduced
- In addition, solvent recycling is the preferred method of disposal by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Investment in waste solvent recycling technologies and solvent recycling equipment could become a greater priority as the trend towards looking more deeply at the manufacturing process for potential savings continues. We can reduce our overhead costs by reducing the amount of materials we need, using a solvent that is more effective, using a recycler that is on-site, increasing our safety and being careful, and being careful about what we throw away (reducing waste). Although there are other benefits to these recycling machines, the cost-savings they offer is ultimately what makes on-site recycling a more financially sound investment.