Commercial Solvent Recovery Facilities See Slight Decrease In Waste Volumes in 2001

Research reveals 42 commercial facilities in U.S. and Canada

Contacts: John McMurray                                                                    Cary Perket

               952/831-2473                                                                            858/488-4760                                                                                                                                       

February 6, 2003 — For Immediate Release

Edina, MN — The EI Digest: Hazardous Waste Marketplace, North America’s leading research service on hazardous waste management, announced the results of its annual survey of the commercial solvent recovery sector.  The report reveals 42 facilities offered solvent recovery services in Canada and the United States in 2001.  Furthermore, 25 of these facilities reported treating 56.7 million gallons of waste through fuel blending in 2000, which was slightly more than the 55.1 million gallons treated in 2001.

“The solvent recovery sector did not experience the significant volumetric decreases that occurred recently in the competing sectors of hazardous waste incineration and fuel blending/energy recovery, ” comments EI Researcher John McMurray.  “This was unexpected, since overall hazardous waste generation is believed to have decreased in 2001 due to the downturn in the economy. Like the rest of the hazardous waste treatment industry, the sector remains optimistic that when economic conditions improve for the manufacturing sector there will be greater volumes of hazardous waste sent to solvent recovery facilities.”

EI Senior Analyst Cary Perket adds that “the very small decrease in the amount of solvent recycling reported in 2001 is surprising considering the downturn in the economy. It is possible that this is simply a shift in market share from the 17 solvent recovery facilities that did not report. Or it could be one of the reasons that volumes were down at competing alternatives like incineration and fuel blending/energy recovery.”

This report appeared in the EI Digest: Hazardous Waste & Toxic Substance Management, is a business research service provided on Envirobiz.com (www.envirobiz.com), one of the Internet’s leading sites for environmental business research.  Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Environmental Information, Ltd. (EI) specializes in research on the environmental services and technology marketplace.  For further information, contact customer service at 952/831-2473.