Aerosols

Consumer commodities refers to products produced for retail applications made of or containing chemicals categorized by the EPA as hazardous. These include items like drain cleaners, perfumes, small arms ammunition, aerosol cans and many other products. These may be safely used in households but pose a potential environmental hazard if allowed to be disposed of alongside regular municipal trash.

Before they are thrown out, we rely on these products for our productivity, comfort, security, and convenience.  However, when these products are discarded, it's critical that they be handled responsibly in compliance with state and federal law in a way that reduces their potential environmental impact.

Clean Earth has extensive technical capabilities to handle the processing of many types of consumer commodities. We work directly with pharmaceutical and consumer packaged good companies to reduce lead time in the processing of consumer commodities such as lab packs, product recalls, damaged, mispackaged, and off-spec products. We have a custom built cutting-edge aerosol recycling plant capable of recycling over seven (7) million cans per year.  This is the only facility in the nation capable of capturing and separating the propellant from aerosols for recycling and re-blending into fuels. These fuels are used as a cleaner burning alternative to coal for producing electricity and powering cement kilns.

Our innovative recycling methods are stepping up to the environmental challenges of disposing of consumer commodities. By thinking of these waste streams not only as an environmental responsibility but also as a potential resource, we are able to achieve our environmental sustainability goals while offsetting the cost of processing the material.  Speak with Clean Earth today about a solution for your organizations consumer commodity disposal needs.

What is Recycled:

• Consumer packaging - shrink wrap, corrugated board, cardboard, pallets
• Hard Plastic Caps
• Exterior Husks - Steel, AluminumInterior Content - return to client or reuse as "reagent/cutter"
• Vapor Gas Recovery: Capable of recovering propellants and/or gases for reuse recycle.  Facility will run on Co-Gen from gas recovery mixed fuels, Propane bottling station for use as fuel for facility vehicles, Refrigerant propellants (ex. R-134A) for reclamation
• Potential for 100% recycling

Performance:

• 2000 cans per hour average running 24/7
• Various raw material feed injectors for foams, adhesives, etc.
• Metal wash
• Handles metal, plastic, glass, paper
• Processes containers up to 6 gallons in size
• Complete vapor/gas recovery system including rebottling of propane/butane for
• Process all types of aerosols including: paints, solvents, adhesives, Isocyanates, foams
• Process paint and paint related materials that are less than 6 gallons in size
• Thin walled cylinders
• Process consumer product returns such as Tide, Clorox, non aerosol sprays such as hair spray, etc. 
• Product Reuse - Product returns, alternate fuels, reclamation, energy recovery, up to 100% dispersion
• Waste Recycling - metal, plastic, cardboard, liquids, gases
• Process Safety - environmentally friendly, automated processing, closed loop processing
• Cost Effective - batch processing, high volumes, product returns, wide variety, including but not limited to:
  • paints
  • household cleaner
  • food stuffs
  • cosmetics
  • lubricants
  • insecticides
  • isocyanates
  • foam caulking
  • product recall
  • D003 waste code items
  • thin walled cylinders