#industrial oil recycling

[clarancevalley]

Industrial Oil Recycling

Industrial Oil Recycling involves the responsible and eco-friendly disposal of used oils from various industrial processes. It's a crucial practice that not only helps protect the environment but also conserves valuable resources. Proper oil recycling ensures that used oils are processed and repurposed, minimizing waste and reducing the carbon footprint of industrial operations.

[clarencevalleyseptics]

With more than 70 years of experience, Clarence Valley Septics offers industrial oil recycling services

Clarence Valley Septics have specialty of removal and processing of oily waters. Oil and other hydrocarbon-based pollutants are found in pits that collect water from commercial and industrial wash down procedures. Before entering the sewer system, this waste water is collected through pits and separator systems.

[capitalism-is-parasitism]

Plastic recycling is a virulent lie

At best, the world could replace 0.2% of new plastic churned out in a year with products made through pyrolysis. https://www.propublica.org/article/delusion-advanced-chemical-plastic-recycling-pyrolysis

[gaiawisdom]

“false” plastics facility distracts from change

ExxonMobil’s new plastics recycling plant, one of the largest in North America, has been criticized by environmental advocates for generating hazardous pollutants and diverting attention from reducing plastics production. The company’s pyrolysis plastics technology is inefficient and worse for the environment than mechanical recycling. Many see the technology as a cover allowing oil giants to continue producing millions of tons of plastic yearly.                        --newsletter of the Price-Pottenger Foundation, 4/15/23

[the-adventures-of-dave]

This outdoor cat argument is pretty common and always short-circuits my brain, because I don't think any other discussion on the environment draws comparisons like that.

Imagine if I went around saying that it's fine if we unregulated the oil industry, because strip mining is worse.

Or that habitat loss is the main cause of the decline in endangered rhinos so we should focus on that instead of poaching.

Or that we shouldn't bother recycling, because the pacific garbage patch exists.

There are a lot of problems in any facet of environmentalism and our relationship to the environment but I feel like that's not a particularly good excuse to just... give up. It's just a strangely bleak look at the world.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report. “The companies lied,” said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. “It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.” Plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Doing so requires meticulous sorting, since most of the thousands of chemically distinct varieties of plastic cannot be recycled together. That renders an already pricey process even more expensive. Another challenge: the material degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can generally only be reused once or twice. The industry has known for decades about these existential challenges, but obscured that information in its marketing campaigns, the report shows. The research draws on previous investigations as well as newly revealed internal documents illustrating the extent of this decades-long campaign. Industry insiders over the past several decades have variously referred to plastic recycling as “uneconomical”, said it “cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution”, and said it “cannot go on indefinitely”, the revelations show. The authors say the evidence demonstrates that oil and petrochemical companies, as well as their trade associations, may have broken laws designed to protect the public from misleading marketing and pollution.

[portablechemist]

This is a small thing, but I find it so interesting that the lyctors wear iridescent white robes. The text describes them as being the color of an oily sheen on water, and there's symbolism there of course, but a thing I've discovered (while trying to do a TLT cosplay) is that white iridescent fabric is always polyester. Plastic-based, terrible-for-the-environment, beloved-of-fast-fashion polyester. It doesn't breathe. Every time you wash it, it leaves behind microplastics in the water (which is maybe something to be examined about the Mithraeum's water recycling system). It's a major product of the oil industry, an industry which is heavily contributing to, if not spearheading, climate change.

And I think it's just so incredibly in character that John - the man who was given the power to save the Earth but instead started WWIII, trapped Her soul in the body of a Barbie, and has used Her as his personal power source for a myriad without a care for what She wants - picked a polyester fabric as the symbol of the First House.

Likely, he didn't even think about it.

[turbulentscrawl]

Modern AU: Norton Campbell

You've heard of modern reader? Well now it's time for Modern canon!

- Previously, he worked in the oil industry, but a nasty accident he doesn’t speak about has left him with his fair share of burn scars. Norton now works as an independent contractor, known around town as a do-it-all type of handyman. He rarely works with or for group projects, preferring to be hired directly by property owners for the work they need done. He’s his own boss, and he makes his own schedule, but he’s a workaholic.

- He was raised by his uncle Benny after his parents died when he was still very young—his mother shortly after childbirth, due to complications, and his father in a work-related accident. Benny’s health deteriorated fast, though, and as soon as he was legally able Norton picked up a part-time job to help pay the bills and build a college fund. (Or several, more like, and he was known to bounce around for better pay.)

-Some time in his senior year of high school, he discovered that Benny was keeping secrets; Benny had not only convinced his father to stay in the oil industry after he was born, but wasted and gambled away all the life insurance money from his death. Enraged and betrayed, Norton dropped out of school and left. He drove as far away as he could with the little money he had, and then lived out of his truck for a while. Eventually, he made enough money to rent a shitty little motel room by the week, and then a shitty little apartment.

-After leaving, he at first went into the oil industry like his old man and Benny had been—it was something he was familiar enough with and hard labor paid better than being a busboy again. But after a few years there was an accident which left him with several burn scars. He was left in pain for a long time, but the worker’s comp paid for most of his medical bills and his rent, giving him just enough time to get his GED. After that, he started into construction, plumbing, and other handiman things he was knowledgeable in after years of being poor and self-sufficient.

-The accident, this time, was more of an ACTUAL accident. Norton had a disagreement with some of the coworkers he hated. There was an altercation, and something ignited…and Norton was the only one who got out. He doesn’t talk about it, mostly out of shame and a sense of guilt, but he copes by telling himself they deserved it.

- He drives the same beat-up old pickup truck Benny bought for him as a kid. It was transferred into his name when he was 18, so Benny can’t swipe it from under his nose. (Legally, anyway.) He could probably get a loan and buy a new car, but at this point he prefers to keep the old hunk of junk. Maybe he’s sentimental, or maybe the weekly maintenance he has to do on it is just therapeutic in a way.

-Not a super techy guy. He keeps up with industry news and learns new skills often, but his truck, his phone, and most of his home appliances are older. He’s good enough with fixing things that he hasn’t bothered to replace them.

-He’s not much of a decorator, either, but he’s good at thrifting and building his own furniture with recycled materials. His apartment/home is a bit of a hodgepodge, with mostly bare walls, but what he does have I impressive in its own way. Any décor he has is likely gifted.

-He’d like to own a home one day, but he’s playing things by ear. He realizes that might be asking a lot while he’s got no real support system.

-He’s a fair cook, but a lot of what he makes could be called “struggle meals.” They’re what he’s been used to for a long time.

-He’s a little paranoid about pumping gas into his truck, but he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. On his days off, he tends to walk to take public transit to save some money and gas mileage.

-He’s that guy with a 7-in-1 shampoo, conditioner, bodywash etc men’s soap. Someone please teach him better ways.

[leviathan-supersystem]

Mike DeWine, the Ohio governor, recently lamented the toll taken on the residents of East Palestine after the toxic train derailment there, saying “no other community should have to go through this”.

But such accidents are happening with striking regularity. A Guardian analysis of data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by non-profit groups that track chemical accidents in the US shows that accidental releases – be they through train derailments, truck crashes, pipeline ruptures or industrial plant leaks and spills – are happening consistently across the country.

By one estimate these incidents are occurring, on average, every two days.

“These kinds of hidden disasters happen far too frequently,” Mathy Stanislaus, who served as assistant administrator of the EPA’s office of land and emergency management during the Obama administration, told the Guardian. Stanislaus led programs focused on the cleanup of contaminated hazardous waste sites, chemical plant safety, oil spill prevention and emergency response.

In the first seven weeks of 2023 alone, there were more than 30 incidents recorded by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, roughly one every day and a half. Last year the coalition recorded 188, up from 177 in 2021. The group has tallied more than 470 incidents since it started counting in April 2020.

The incidents logged by the coalition range widely in severity but each involves the accidental release of chemicals deemed to pose potential threats to human and environmental health.

In September, for instance, nine people were hospitalized and 300 evacuated in California after a spill of caustic materials at a recycling facility. In October, officials ordered residents to shelter in place after an explosion and fire at a petrochemical plant in Louisiana. In November, more than 100 residents of Atchinson, Kansas, were treated for respiratory problems and schools were evacuated after an accident at a beverage manufacturing facility created a chemical cloud over the town.

Among multiple incidents in December, a large pipeline ruptured in rural northern Kansas, smothering the surrounding land and waterways in 588,000 gallons of diluted bitumen crude oil. Hundreds of workers are still trying to clean up the pipeline mess, at a cost pegged at around $488m.

The precise number of hazardous chemical incidents is hard to determine because the US has multiple agencies involved in response, but the EPA told the Guardian that over the past 10 years, the agency has “performed an average of 235 emergency response actions per year, including responses to discharges of hazardous chemicals or oil”. The agency said it employs roughly 250 people devoted to the EPA’s emergency response and removal program.

[...]

The EPA itself says that by several measurements, accidents at facilities are becoming worse: evacuations, sheltering and the average annual rate of people seeking medical treatment stemming from chemical accidents are on the rise. Total annual costs are approximately $477m, including costs related to injuries and deaths.

“Accidental releases remain a significant concern,” the EPA said.

In August, the EPA proposed several changes to the Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations that apply to plants dealing with hazardous chemicals. The rule changes reflect the recognition by EPA that many chemical facilities are located in areas that are vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, including power outages, flooding, hurricanes and other weather events.

The proposed changes include enhanced emergency preparedness, increased public access to information about hazardous chemicals risks communities face and new accident prevention requirements.

The US Chamber of Commerce has pushed back on stronger regulations, arguing that most facilities operate safely, accidents are declining and that the facilities impacted by any rule changes are supplying “essential products and services that help drive our economy and provide jobs in our communities”. Other opponents to strengthening safety rules include the American Chemistry Council, American Forest & Paper Association, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute.

The changes are “unnecessary” and will not improve safety, according to the American Chemistry Council.

Many worker and community advocates, such as the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, (UAW), which represents roughly a million laborers, say the proposed rule changes don’t go far enough.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

An explosive new report finds that the plastics industry has misled the public for decades about the viability of recycling plastic, promoting reuse despite the fact that mechanical recycling was not feasible – perpetuating the plastic waste crisis the world faces today.

[clarancevalley]

Clarence Valley Septics: Leading the Way in Industrial Oil Recycling

Clarence Valley Septics offers industrial oil recycling services to businesses in the Clarence Valley and Coffs Coast areas. We collect, transport, and process used oil, which is then refined back into a base oil product. This helps to reduce the consumption of virgin oil and protect the environment.

[clarencevalleyseptics]

Chemical Waste Disposal

Aside from helping to keep the environment clean, effective waste disposal also helps to keep our homes and workplaces neat and tidy. Chemical or hazardous waste has the potential to harm us and must be disposed of carefully. Rather than littering, certain Chemical Waste Disposal methods can eliminate the risks that come with coming into contact with a toxic chemical.

[seat-safety-switch]

Sure, the newspaper calls them “eco-terrorists,” but that’s a bit of a self-interested position coming from something that is printed on trees. If anything, they should be thanking the weird gang of environmentalist guerrillas who come down every spring thaw from the mountains. They don’t really do violence, either, except against industrial equipment (that I later harvest the turbos from at the junkyard.) In fact, most of what they do is plant trees. Lots, and lots, and lots of trees.

You might not think that planting trees is very intimidating, and you’d be right. As the members explained to me one night at the bar, it’s all about where you plant them. A tree is impressive up top, sure, but if you pick the right breed of them, you’ll find that the roots are made of some truly boffo shit. Thick enough roots will split open the foundation and basement of, say, the offices of an oil and gas disinformation trust, and lead them to spend a bunch of their money on sump pumps and concrete pours instead of giving air cover to billionaires.

Normally, it takes decades, even centuries, for a tree to get big enough to cause this kind of damage. Turns out that up in those mountains, they’ve got themselves some kind of fucked-up bioengineering lab, making angrier, fiercer varieties of local trees. Ones that have a voracious appetite to spread and spread and spread, and which will eventually, if left unchecked, destroy all of human civilization. So naturally I was interested in making friends with them, in case they had any leftover vibratory tumblers, or ultrasonic cleaners, or two-stroke lawn equipment at this lab.

Unfortunately, the classic downfall of activism has struck me. Despite the fact that all of my vehicles are made up of recycled garbage, they produce enough smog, backfires, tire particles, and unburned gasoline clouds to qualify as a miniature Exxon Valdez. Once again, an unnecessarily rigorous purity test has denied this activist group a valuable ally. For instance, I could break down in front of the newspaper offices again, blocking their delivery trucks, which are diesels. And then I could steal the turbochargers out of those trucks.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Truthout:

In March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly agreed to begin negotiating a legally binding treaty between 175 countries that will determine how the world deals with such plastic pollution. The fifth and final negotiating session is now set to start in late November this year. Recognizing the scope and severity of the crisis, delegates for the 14 Pacific Island countries have been at the forefront of the international plastic treaty talks, advocating for strict limits on plastic production and the need to set tangible goals for waste management.

Other countries, including Rwanda, Peru and European Union nations, have also pushed for ambitious goals and plastic production caps. But the United States, alongside oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, has historically opposed these proposals. The oil and gas industry wants delegates to carve out a treaty that focuses on things like plastic tracking and recycling rather than decreasing production — even though, for decades, plastics companies knew that recycling was an overwhelming failure.

But in August, in what could be a major breakthrough for the future of the planet, President Joe Biden’s administration indicated it would support plastic production limits and increased controls on the toxic chemicals that are used in the plastic production process.

Environmental groups praised the announcement, while industry groups like the American Chemistry Council — which has spent nearly $10 million in lobbying efforts so far this year — lambasted the administration for “caving” to environmentalists’ wishes and “betray[ing] U.S. manufacturing.”

While the Biden administration’s announcement gained little attention in a crowded news cycle, this shift in approach carries urgent importance. Less than 10 percent of plastic waste is currently recycled globally; the rest winds up dumped or incinerated, harming communities and polluting the Earth. If the years of negotiations yield a treaty that focuses on recycling — not production caps — as a solution to the crisis, then the world will be digging itself into an even deeper plastic pollution hole. And it would take a huge amount of additional international coordination to climb back out.

Plastic, which is derived from fossil fuels, is toxic throughout every stage of its life cycle, from production to disposal. The extraction and refinement of fossil fuels for plastic production emits hundreds of millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, heating up the atmosphere and fueling the climate crisis. Research from the Center for International Environmental Law emphasized that the global plastics treaty needs “to incorporate ambitious obligations that specifically target global plastic production” if we are going to keep global warming below the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold.

Plastics also contain a slew of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals, which are released during production at facilities that, in the United States, are often placed in low-income communities and communities of color. In January, a report by Amnesty International found that the Houston Ship Channel — a major hub for fossil fuels in the United States — is a racial “sacrifice zone,” where an immense and disproportionate burden of pollution is placed on people of color by fossil fuel companies. The report noted that the scale of harmful pollution amounts to a human rights violation.

At the end of plastics’ life cycle, wealthy nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom, frequently export their waste to poorer nations in a phenomenon that has been dubbed “waste colonialism.” Often, these countries have fewer resources to manage and tame the vast amounts of trash than the rich countries that are sending it. The term was coined as far back as 1989, when several African nations expressed concerns at the United Nations Environmental Program Basel Convention that wealthy countries were using countries in Africa as dumping grounds for hazardous waste.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers discover smarter way to recycle polyurethane

Researchers at Aarhus University have found a better method to recycle polyurethane foam from items like mattresses. This is great news for the budding industry that aims to chemically recover the original components of the material—making their products cheaper and better. Polyurethane (PUR) is an indispensable plastic material used in mattresses, insulation in refrigerators and buildings, shoes, cars, airplanes, wind turbine blades, cables, and much more. It could be called a wonder material if it weren't also an environmental and climate burden. Most of the PUR products discarded worldwide end up being incinerated or dumped in landfills. This is problematic because the main components of the material are primarily extracted from fossil oil. And we're talking about significant quantities. In 2022, the global market for PUR reached almost 26 million tons, and a forecast for 2030 predicts nearly 31.3 million tons, with about 60% being foam in various forms.

Read more.