The coating process produces about 4,000,000 linear yards of goods. Goods are produced in various colors and widths, in increments of up to 10,000 yards. Each color change requires a thorough cleanup of equipment. Most of the equipment used to process excess cleaning oil into a saleable product was available at the facility. A pump plus a few hundred feet of ordinary steel piping were installed to supplement existing equipment.
Maintenance costs are minor.
Labor used to correct excess cleaning oil to saleable product offsets labor formerly required to handle the excess oil as a hazardous waste. Payback on investment was less than six months. If not reprocessed and sold, excess cleaning oil would account for about 120 cubic yards of waste, on an annual basis. The critical constraint is securing and maintaining customers for the reprocessed oil. The recycling effort began during 1990.