120 www. bus- ex. com NOVEMBER 09 Recycle, reclaim, reuse Pollution Control Industries practices the Three Rs in its commitment to provide environmental services to a of industries producing hazardous and non- hazardous waste streams, April Terreri reports

Pollution Control Industries NOVEMBER 09 www. bus- ex. com 121 patented called the Solid Distillation System. It separates and evaporates solvents out of the solid material. Then it re- condenses the vapors into solvents again, which we reclaim so they can be used again in an industrial process. The Solid Distillation System recovers hydrocarbons or solvents from solid organic waste, reports Carle. " This is a unique system in the industry; we're the only company in the country that has one." In processing used solvents, PCI puts liquids through a distillation process. " We use the same type of equipment you would use to make alcohol," Carle explains. " This process fractionates the solvents. Then we separate the dirty material from the clean material, reclaiming the good portion, and we send that processed material back into the commerce stream as reusable raw material. The dirty portion rendered through this process is called bottom material, which we dispose of using best practices management. " Our ability to recycle and reuse waste offers our customers unprecedented cost efficiencies and regulatory advantages, in addition to knowing that their wastes are handled in the most environmentally sound manner possible," Carle says. The company's 12- acre site houses numerous buildings and a wide range of heavy equipment to handle all these recycling and reclamation processes. A short list of the equipment on site includes shredders, distillation columns and thin- film evaporators. Another facet of PCI's business includes energy recovery through its processed waste fuel products sent to permitted Resource Conservation and Recovery Act/ Boiler Incinerator Furnace cement kilns located throughout the country. Carle explains that the combustion of organic hazardous wastes at high temperatures in cement kilns is the Best Demonstrated Available Technology ( BDAT) for treating high- BTU hazardous wastes. Cement kilns are designed to burn at high stable temperatures. By using hazardous waste as a fuel, cement kiln recycling nationally reduces the consumption of fossil fuels by about 1 million tons of coal annually. A new program, Off- Prime Reuse, is an innovative alternative to disposal for some waste streams that consist primarily of chemicals and solvents, explains Carle. Through this program, PCI will analyze a sample of a company's waste stream, and if it qualifies, it will be recycled and processed so it can be used again in industry. " We are redirecting materials that one company disposes of to another company for use as a secondary ingredient," Carle explains. Responding to industries' concerns about their environmental responsibility, PCI recently launched reclaim, Industries a range hazardous reports F or more than a quarter of a century, Pollution Control Industries of East Chicago, Indiana, has been recycling hazardous and non- hazardous wastes generated by industries including automotive, equipment manufacturing, paint and coatings manufacturing, and general manufacturing companies throughout the country. Recently acquired by a European environmental services company- the Tradebe Group of Barcelona- Pollution Control Industries ( PCI) can now offer waste management services to customers throughout the world. In addition to its primary facility in East Chicago, Indiana, PCI operates three other US facilities, in Millington, Tennessee; Columbia, South Carolina; and Houston, Texas. About 70 percent of PCI's business focuses on processing hazardous industrial waste, while the remaining 30 percent comes from non- hazardous waste streams. " We are an environmental services company well known for recycling these materials," states Ken Carle, executive vice president for business development. " PCI is committed to recycling, reclamation and waste minimization. Our laboratory examines everything that comes into our facility to determine if it can be recycled. We utilize the RCRA [ Resource Conservation and Recovery Act] hierarchy as a guide to determine the most environmentally sound way to handle waste. The most preferred option is reducing waste generation at its source, then recycling the waste that is generated so it can be reused in industry. Then, only when the waste can provide no further productive use, it may be sent to landfill. In short, we recycle the portion of the waste that we can and dispose of the balance using best practices." PCI receives non- hazardous waste and hazardous wastes generated by its customers throughout the country. Non- hazardous materials could include water-based inks, pastes and glues, latex paints, glycols and adhesives. " We bring in this material, analyze it, and if acceptable, bulk it up, process it, and send it to energy plants that use it as a fuel to produce steam and heat, primarily for municipalities," reports Carle. Under the hazardous waste category, PCI offers a full range of services including organic solids recycling, liquid and solid hazardous waste processing and recycling, solvent distillation, high hazardous chemical identification and removal, cylinder identification and disposal, and solids distillation. For example, material contaminated by organics goes through PCI's exclusive solid distillation process. These materials could include solvent- soaked rags, paints and manufacturing debris, explains Carle. " We put this waste material into a system we designed and