Creating Revenue From Waste
Truck Fleet Now Fueled with Recycled Waste Oil
Situation:
Soil Solutions Environmental Services Inc. is a full service environmental consulting and construction company that has served customers in Oregon and SW Washington since 1998. As Oregon's largest Heating Oil Tank Service Provider company, Soil Solutions works on approximately 1000 tank sites each year within a 100-mile radius of Portland. Through its tank decommission and cleanup services, Soil Solutions collects approximately 40,000 gallons of mixed waste oil and water each year.
Implementation:
Researching the Opportunities:
SevenGen focused on turning this waste stream into a revenue-generating product for Soil Solutions. We performed research to identify processes to separate and refine the marketable diesel portion of the waste stream to reduce the disposal costs. We also investigated opportunities to reuse, market, and/or donate the refined diesel fuel.
Through interviews and industry discussions, the SevenGen team discovered two viable options to reuse the refined oil product. The product could be used in company fleet vehicles or sold to an industrial customer to be used as heating oil or in a manufacturing process. Because the savings value of retail fuel is greater than the sale value of bulk fuel, we recommended that the primary use for the refined oil product should be to fuel the company's own fleet vehicles.
Quantifying the Financial Upside:
SevenGen's research revealed that refining and reusing Soil Solutions' waste oil would create $18,660 in internal fuel savings and generate $62,500 worth of external oil sales revenue, for combined returns of $81,160. When compared to the revenue currently generated by the sale of the un-refined waste oil to an oil recycling company ($12,400), there is a net increase in profit of $68,760. Based on these numbers, the project team recommended that Soil Solutions make the necessary equipment purchases to begin recycling their oil waste stream internally.
