Are you paying too much on waste haulers fees? Do you have no idea how your recycling billing works?
The United States produces about
7.6 billion tons of industrial waste every year. Meanwhile, in 2018, the number of recycled production-related waste in the United States was 16.9 billion pounds, with treated wastes costing 8.28 billion pounds.
Can there be an industrial process without waste?
It is impossible for an industrial process to not produce waste. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the manufacturing, agriculture, medical, or hospitality industry, you must produce waste at some point.
But what can you do about it?
Since you cannot avoid the production of waste in each industrial process, you can reduce most of the waste and reuse most of the waste materials using the process of industrial waste recycling.
The environment is crying out for help and you can help to save the environment.
How can property managers achieve this?
Through industrial recycling.
Let’s take a look at the contents of this article:
- An overview of industrial recycling
- 4 Common recyclable industrial waste materials
- 8 Ways industrial recycling can benefit your business
- 5 Methods of recycling industrial waste
An Overview of Industrial Recycling
Industrial waste is any waste produced through industrial activity. Such waste includes materials rendered useless during the manufacturing process. Factories, mills, industries, and mining operations produce industrial waste.
Examples of industrial waste include chemical solvents, sandpaper, industrial by-products, paints, paper products, radioactive wastes, and metals.
Industrial recycling of waste also referred to as “beneficial use” by the government, is the process of recycling or reusing waste items that are created from industrial processes.
With these industrial waste materials, you can safely and successfully manufacture and repair roads, buildings, bridges, consumer products, consumer goods, and several other projects.
Classification of industrial waste is done based on its characteristics. Sometimes, they are grouped under hazardous and non-hazardous industrial wastes.
This time around, we are classifying them as:
- Solid form with pollutants in either liquid or fluid form: Examples of such waste include washing of coal or minerals and the crockery industry.
- Dissolved form with pollutant in liquid form: The dairy industry is a good example.
Are you curious about how other companies store their industrial waste before recycling them?
Although most companies store their industrial waste in a warehouse until it is ready to be disposed of finally, others use open spaces, plastic bags, barrels, tanks, pools, and lots of other options available to them for temporary storage. Environmental contamination is one of the main effects when storing industrial waste with these options. Industrial waste contains various toxic and hazardous substances that can leach into the soil and groundwater if stored in open spaces or inadequately sealed containers. Improper storage can lead to soil and water pollution, affecting ecosystems and potentially harming plants, animals, and humans.
4 Common Recyclable Industrial Waste Materials
There are a lot of opportunities for waste recycling in the industrial category.
Four of them are:
- Coal combustion products
- Demolition and construction materials
- Scrap tires
- Foundry sand
Let’s discuss them in more details:
Coal combustion products (CCPs)
CCPs are gotten from power plants that depend on coal to produce energy. Examples of these materials include Boiler Slag, Bottom Ash, Fly Ash, and Flue Gas Material (FGD). Other materials that fall under CCPs include cenospheres, scrubber residues, and fluidized bed combustion ash.
These industrial waste products are primarily used as substitutes for sand, gypsum, and gravel used in building materials. They are also used in wallboards, cement, concrete, flowable and structural fill, grout, soil amendment, snow and ice traction control, roofing granules, blasting grit and abrasives, solidification, and stabilization of waste, among others.
Demolition and construction materials
Demolition and construction materials comprise waste created by construction, demolition, or repair of roads, bridges, residential buildings, and industrial buildings. Examples of these materials are glass, wood, metals, plastics, concrete, and building components like fixtures, furniture, and pipes that can be recovered.
How can recycling these materials help save the cost of running your business sustainably?
The reduction, reuse, and recycling of these materials will reduce your impact on the environment, lessen the need for landfills, reduce the expenses of demolition and construction, and create new jobs for a greener economy.
By so doing, you will save money you spend on purchasing and disposing of waste.
Scrap tires
Illegal disposal of tiles has become a major concern because of the way it is contaminating the environment. Tires that were designed for heavy-duty and passenger cars get disposed of when they become unusable. You must put every effort to collect and recycle unusable tires.
What can unusable tires be recycled into?
Here are a few options:
Aggregate from tires
This is used for road construction and landfill.
Rubberized asphalt
It is used in repairing road surfaces.
Rubber ground and flooring
Used in manufacturing products such as playground and sports surfaces.
Tire-derived fuel
It is used in place of some devices.
Foundry Sand
Any industrial waste that is produced by steel, iron, and aluminum foundries will bring about spent foundry sands. Foundries need new sand to cast molds, and this sand will remain effective even after being recycled repeatedly.
But heat and mechanical abrasion could make the sand useless with time, and this will take out some percentage of the sand from production and replace it with new sand. Then the unusable or spent foundry sand will be disposed of at any landfill.
If, for example, you are using foundry sand as the base material at a construction site in cold climates, it will extend the work season because the freezing temperature of the recycled foundry sands is lower than that of most soils.
Besides extending the time for completing the work at the site, it also saves the cost of using expensive warming and expensive heaters.
8 Ways Industrial Recycling Can Benefit Your Business
If you’re not recycling, then your business is missing out on loads of benefits. Not only does recycling favor the environment, but it does wonders for your bottom line.
When you recycle your industrial waste, your business stands to gain the following 8 benefits:
1. Conserves resources and reduces your carbon footprint
This is the most important way your business benefits from industrial waste recycling.
Recycling your industrial waste helps you to produce less waste, and consequently, release less waste into the environment. With less waste, you will need less landfill space and significantly reduce gas pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For example, recycling aluminum requires about 95% less energy than producing aluminum from raw bauxite ore, resulting in significant greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
Besides, recycling and reusing industrial waste and by-products helps to conserve energy and environmental resources.
2. Saves money
If you’re after saving money and improving your bottom line, then the simplest way to do so is by industrial recycling. Industrial recycling programs can help to create cost avoidance and free up some money that you can use to fund other sustainable ideas within your business.
You also get to save money you usually spend on janitorial fees and create more opportunities for your business to expand.
3. Saves energy and resources with recycling machines
Industrial shredders, crushers, trash compactors, and balers are some of the recycling machines that your company can use to reduce landfilling and incineration.
Recycling using any of these machines will help to reduce pollution while also reducing the cost of waste disposal, landfill taxes, and energy consumption. By reusing materials and products, businesses can reduce their reliance on raw materials and optimize production processes, leading to cost savings and improved overall efficiency.
Industrial recycling also helps to improve site logistics and resource utilization.
4. It helps to reduce your disposal cost
There are so many costs associated with disposing of industrial waste and some commercial by-products. Through industrial recycling, these costs can be reduced and your bottom line will get a boost. Also, your company will not need to spend money on purchasing recyclable raw materials. For example, landfills charge businesses for the amount of waste they dispose of. By recycling materials instead of sending them to landfills, businesses can avoid these fees altogether or reduce the volume of waste going to landfills, leading to cost savings.
Plastic and aluminum, for example, can be recycled in-house. The process which requires the use of recycling machines is very easy and fast. By so doing, you will save up to half the money you would have used to purchase brand new raw aluminum or plastic granules.
5. Boosts the reputation of your business
Besides helping you save money and energy, embracing an environmental-conscious approach will attract more customers and investors as they will consider you more credible and valuable. For example, environmentally concious consumers purposely seek out companies that align with their objectives. If a company recycles more and wastes less, they are more likely to attract customers interested in supporting businesses that care for the environment.
The general awareness of how increasing carbon footprints influence taxes is making more people align their businesses with eco-friendly and sustainable practices.
6. You can earn money
When you choose to implement sustainable industrial recycling programs in your company, you could sell your recyclable wastes that may have alternative uses in other companies. This can earn you some money which you could use to fund another program and generate more money.
Do you know how much your industrial waste recyclables are worth?
Thanks to advancements in recycling technology, recyclable materials such as glass, metals, and plastics are becoming a valuable commodities as their prices go up. You need to find out how much your recyclables are worth in your region.
Furthermore, industrial recycling will make your employees more conscious of how much waste they generate and how best to dispose of it. Proper disposal of industrial waste will help to lessen the contaminations of recycling streams and increase the value of your recyclables.
7. Job creation
Industrial waste recycling involves a couple of processes, some of which are processing, transportation, and reselling. All these processes require a workforce with unique skill sets. As much as 30 more jobs can be created through recycling and reuse than incinerators and landfills.
Industrial waste recycling stimulates job creation across various sectors, ranging from manual labor in waste collection to highly skilled technical positions in research and development. Additionally, it contributes to sustainability, resource conservation, and a more circular economy, making it a win-win situation for job seekers and the environment.
8. You can build a more eco-friendly brand
If you choose to implement environmental initiatives in your company, you will become eligible for some programs and special certifications that will create more business opportunities for you.
Adopting a more sustainable approach for your business will also bring you social benefits. One of such approaches is Waste-to-Energy (WTE) recycling.
Going green offers you a chance to show your community that you are committed to a greener future, which will boost your credibility and give you a competitive advantage.
Industrial recycling can do all these for you and much more by creating sustainable brand recognition for you while ensuring that natural resources are optimally used to meet compliance requirements.
5 Methods of Recycling Industrial Waste
Industrial establishments generate tremendous amounts of toxic waste daily, which have terrible consequences for the environment. Recycling plays a major role in reducing GHG emissions and the space allotted for landfilling. A lot of energy is conserved when your company takes part in recycling.
However, when you hire a professional company to help to recycle your waste, you have to go through a process to make sure your industrial waste is properly disposed of or recycled.
Take a look at these 5 ways your company can recycle industrial waste:
1. Break the waste down
Some companies now use industrial composting systems instead of using landfills. This is a more environmentally friendly way of dealing with your industrial waste. The process of breaking down your biodegradable organic waste involves the use of microorganisms.
What is the result?
The material produced from this process is used in some countries as an alternative fuel source.
Composting is now generally accepted in many Western countries, with some of them making it mandatory.
2. Thermal treatment
Most waste items contain some degree of energy content. If you take it through the process of heating these waste materials at high temperatures and with little or no oxygen, you will be able to use this energy for cooking, generating steam, and heating.
This thermal treatment allows the energy content to be converted into alternative fuels as well.
3. Reclaim the waste
Reclamation involves processing the waste to extract useful material from it. Some examples include recovering mercury from broken thermometers and reclaiming lead from paint and batteries. Solvents like acetone, after being used, can be distilled to be used again.
4. Harness harmful gases
Despite the efforts to avoid landfills altogether through recycling, landfills are still commonly used in many countries because dumping waste in abandoned areas is easy and cheap.
So, in a bid to ensure resource recovery, harmful landfill gas can be captured and harnessed for generating electricity or fuel.
5. Burn to remake
What about making new objects from re-melted materials?
Some materials, like plastic bottles, can be remelted and converted to new objects like clothing-grade polyester. However, this process, when done subsequently, increases the levels of poisonous or unwanted substances that are released into the environment.
Examples of materials recycled using this method include oil filters, industrial transformers, and some large-sized containers. Before you consider re-melting materials, conduct a waste audit. It will help in understanding the types and quantities of waste generated by your industrial processes and to identify the materials that can be recycled.
Conclusion
The amount of solid and liquid industrial waste being dumped every day is shocking, to say the least.
Do you want to get intentional about how you dispose of your industrial waste?
Waste Control is the most efficient waste and recycling services company for your needs. We will evaluate your current waste services and show you how you can save cost and time while helping to ensure a greener Earth for everyone.