Have you ever wondered what really happens to all the waste we take away after servicing your machine? Wonder no more. Safetykleen’s Head of Waste Product Delivery, Michael Garland took us behind the plastic curtain to explain where waste goes, what happens to it and why your waste isn’t even waste anymore once we’ve finished with it.
Can you walk us through the process of what happens to waste once it leaves a customer’s site?
It depends on the cleaning solution. We use three main classes of chemistry in our machines: aqueous, kerosene and thinners.
Our water-based, aqueous, chemistries are our most modern, efficient and adaptable options, and are used by the majority of our customers. With these, we collect the drum, bring it back to our local transfer station, take a few samples and test it. We classify all our aqueous cleaning solutions as non-hazardous and maintain this by running a regulatory standard testing regime. If a customer has a collection that tests as having too many contaminants in, it’s simply segregated and treated as part of our hazardous waste flow.
Whether it’s non-hazardous or hazardous, though, in 95% of the branches the waste will then be decanted into 36000-litre capacity tankers for storage. The drums are thoroughly cleaned for re-use.
On a scheduled basis, the non-hazardous aqueous waste is collected from branch, either by one of our own tankers or by our waste partners and transported to a wastewater treatment site run by one of the national water companies.
What do national water companies do with the waste we deliver?
The wastewater we collect goes through ultrafiltration and bacterial treatment, with the process carefully monitored and repeated over several cycles to ensure the water meets safety standards and is clean enough for re-use. It’s a full circular economy for that waste.
Is aqueous waste returned to the natural watercourses, rivers, seas, and subsequently entering the environmental water circuit cycle?
Yes, it eventually returns to the natural watercourses and environmental water cycle, including the potential for being discharged back into drinking water. It’s important to note that some contaminants can become hazardous when filtered out on their own. These contaminants are segregated and sent as Secondary Liquid Fuel (SLF), to power things like cement kilns, ensuring all waste has a further downstream use.
How does treatment of kerosene waste differ from aqueous waste?
The main difference lies in the hazardous rating. People won’t be surprised to learn that kerosene is considered as an hazardous waste. As a crude oil refracted fuel, it has an associated value, so we store it in our tanks on site.
In our sustainability drive for a safer and kleener planet, we’re moving customers away from the use of kerosene cleaning solutions to our aqueous-based cleaning solutions, so we’re able to store it in smaller tanks or transfer it into Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs).
Our partnership company then collect the waste by pumping it out of our containers at our transfer stations, then transporting it to their treatment facility for the next step. This step involves a separation process to remove suspended solids and water that may have become mixed with the kerosene during our cleaning and servicing process. The separated water follows the same wastewater treatment process as aqueous waste, while the kerosene is mainly used as Processed Fuel Oil (PFO) for waste recovery.
Our current process means that PFO is still used as fuel, which is an example of waste recovery through energy. Even though we’re recovering and recycling some of it, it doesn’t represent a full circular economy, so we’re exploring improvements to fully recycle it back into renewable kerosene that can be reused in our machines.
How about the third type of waste, from thinners?
Thinners waste used to be sent for processing in 25-litre capacity drums, but now we send it to OBC, our chemical refinery sister company in Germany under a Transfrontier Shipment Agreement. OBC distils the waste, separates contaminants, and sends the cleaned and recycled thinners back to us in the UK. Our relationship with OBC means we’re able to set the high quality specification of end product, and means these thinners are actually suitable for reuse in our Paintkleen machines. This recycling enables our customers to reduce their VOC content.
How does what Safetykleen does compare to others and to international standards?
The international guideline for waste is the Waste Framework Directive, which organises sustainability levels into a five-tier Waste Hierarchy that’s usually represented with a triangular diagram.
The hierarchy prioritises the following order: prevention, reuse, recycling, recovery, and, ultimately, disposal. It’s primary objective is to minimise the environmental impact of waste, promote waste prevention, and ensure that the majority of waste is reused or repurposed.
We’ve categorised all our activities within the tiers of the Directive, and, we generally operate within the recycling tier, which represents the highest level of waste framework directive that we can achieve with the waste that we work with. We’re about 90% in the secondary tiers, focusing on recycling rather than disposal.
Do any of Safetykleen’s services fall within the first tier of the directive?
Yes, our Kleenwipes solution falls within tier one. Our used wipes are not classified as a waste because they’re laundered and re-supplied to the customer. So, as well as being used to clean up waste, they also reduce the amount of waste created and boost customers’ compliance to tier one, placing them at the waste prevention level.
What are some additional benefits that customers might not be aware of?
I think what they benefit most from is the breadth of our expertise. We’re a solution-based company, truly centred around our customers. Whatever issues they may have with waste management, we’ve got a solution and are here to help.
One of the key parts of waste processing is transportation. All our vehicles, drums, and storage units are UN-approved and ADR-certified. Our trained drivers operate within strict regulatory frameworks, so we can handle waste safely and legally.
It would also be really difficult for an individual customer to set up and maintain the sort of Transfrontier Shipping Agreement and recycling relationship we have with OBC, for example.
Additionally, our documentation and reporting are fully comprehensive. We handle all the legal paperwork, ensuring full compliance and mitigating the risk of regulatory fines. We take this a step further with real-time waste tracking and instant access to reporting, allowing customers to view digital waste consignment notes and reports on demand, providing fully traceable waste disposal.
For customers who use our machines, we have a service team with a great deal of knowledge from working with customers across various industries. This expertise helps us understand the best practices for waste storage in each industry. When a customer joins our partnership, they benefit from a cleaner, tidier, and more efficient waste storage area, keeping them compliant, safe, and their operations running smoothly.
