Sustainability

Waste shipments sent to cement kilns are EPA Method Management coded as H050, which is on-site energy recovery. Waste shipments sent to RCRA Incinerators/Thermal Desorption Units are coded H040, which is incineration and thermal destruction other than use as a fuel. This difference is noted on the EPA’s Annual Waste Summary for CIRCON's clients and is recognized as a "green" waste dispensation method. The waste CIRCON processes may also fall into one of the EPA exemption categories which will allow those materials to be transported on a Bill of Lading. Anything on the Bill of Lading is also exempt from waste taxes, once again creating a bottom-line benefit for our customers as well as improved sustainability standings.

In the last five years, CIRCON has sent 58 million gallons of waste-derived fuels to power cement kilns. That's waste that would have otherwise been sent to incinerators/TDUs to be thermally treated with no commercial benefits and leaving a residual ash destined for landfill. Instead, we turn it into a lot of newly valuable fuel for our industry and market. In fact, it's enough fuel to fill nearly 90 Olympic-size swimming pools.

CIRCON has recycled more than 500 million gallons of water over the last five years. CIRCON’s wastewater treatment technology sends newly clean water back into the ecosystem, rather than using two “forever” options seen throughout our industry: deep well technology or liquid landfill, which dumps contaminated water into our earth; or thermal treatment technology, which destroys the water with no added benefit (and eats up plenty of energy in the process).

CIRCON Refuel, the waste-derived fuel that CIRCON blends and ships to power our cement-kiln partners, creates zero landfill results. RCRA incinerators and thermal desorption facilities (the industry’s other option for waste management) result in a 50% ash residual. That’s additional waste that has to be disposed of in a forever landfill. Our cleaner, better option has resulted in 175,000 tons of landfill avoidance in the last five years. That’s equal to 377 million cans of Coke!

CIRCON's oil recycling and reclamation facilities collect off-spec materials from tank-cleaning projects and slop oil emulsions, and recover valuable components. Those components become marketable products that rebate money back to the client. In the last five years, we’ve reclaimed 400,000 barrels of off-spec materials from projects. And with our turnkey process, CIRCON sustainably manages residual water and solids.

CIRCON takes hazardous wastes recovered from tank-cleaning jobs at petroleum refineries across the country and turns them into a valuable and usable waste-derived fuel. This branded product, known as CIRCON Refuel, is used throughout the cement kiln industry as a sustainable, greener power source. We’re creating new energy from waste, and eliminating the need for coal. With the creation and use of 58 million gallons of waste-derived fuels over the past five years, CIRCON has helped our clients displace 175,000 tons of coal. Additionally, CIRCON's energy recovery programs create an engineered fuel that reduces the need for mining and consuming fossil fuels.

CIRCON's specialty tankers carry solids and sludges in payloads twice the capacity of traditional roll-off boxes. And, because we can load tankers directly, we eliminate the need for those roll-off boxes completely. That, in turn, eliminates the need for HDPE liners (which eventually end up in landfills) and container cleanouts, which on average use up to 200 gallons of water. CIRCON's larger payloads also optimize transportation and eliminate the carbon footprint of 50% of our clients’ over-the-road waste shipments. Double your payload, and cut your footprint.

CIRCON uses innovative, technology-first methods and work with strategic recycling partners to find more sustainable ways to handle these materials. The CIRCON box's double-walled container allows us to bulk materials, and inside, our patented agitation system helps process and ready them for eventual use as fuel by our kiln partners. It allows us to blend hazardous and non-hazardous streams, reducing a facility’s waste disposal costs and supporting our clients’ sustainability objectives. Plus, the ability to bulk drums and process them more efficiently—rather than individually—reduces CIRCON's operating costs from about 30 cents per pound to just 2 cents per pound.