Safety-Kleen Canada Launches Used Oil Recycling Program

Used oil collected in Quebec is re-refined at Safety-Kleen’s facility in Breslau, Ontario, and returned for re-sale in Quebec.

Safety-Kleen says that its new used oil recycling program is an environmentally friendly alternative to a used oil collection and burning program designed by the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute (CPPI) and recently proposed by Recyc-Quebec, a Quebec government agency, and Société de Gestion des Huiles Usagées (SOGHU), a group of large lubricating oil brand-owners, including major members of CPPI. If this program is implemented in Quebec, Safety-Kleen is concerned that it will lose its supply of used oil to those who would burn it.

“Quebec produces used oil that can be recycled back into high-quality oil, comparable in quality and performance to new oil,” Pierre Gendron, Safety-Kleen’s Quebec market manager, says. “The SOGHU program encourages the burning of used oil as a one-time fuel, and that oil then has to be replaced. The choice for consumers and the environment is clear— reuse and recycling or pollution and continued dependence on imported oil.” 

Gendron says that Safety-Kleen has filed a legal challenge to the SOGHU program, alleging that it is inconsistent with the government of Quebec waste reduction policies, which promote the reuse and recycling of resources, and also ignores a Supreme Court of Canada ruling about environmental measures anticipating, preventing and attacking causes of environmental degradation.

Safety-Kleen’s new used oil program is simple, effective and consumer-friendly, Gendron says, and an example of true extended-producer responsibility, an approach to environmental stewardship endorsed by the Quebec Government, the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Under the program, any Safety-Kleen Performance Plus lubricating oil customer that designates Safety-Kleen as its collector for used oil and used oil containers will not be charged any environmental charges, fees or levies on its purchases of oil and oil containers, and Safety-Kleen will pick up the used oil and used oil containers for free.

“There are no up-front fees or back-end charges,” Gendron says. “In fact, customers actually save money by avoiding certain environmental surcharges and levies. Safety-Kleen’s closed-loop recycling system is the only option that saves customers money and protects the environment.”

Under the program proposed by SOGHU, consumers would be charged an additional 5 cents on every liter of lubricating oil they buy, and another 5 cents for every liter of container size on a 4-liter jug of oil, consumers would pay an additional 40 cents, according to a release from Safety-Kleen. Aerosol containers and oil filters will also be subjected to fees ranging from 25 cents to $1 dollar. A portion of the money raised by these environmental charges would be paid to SOGHU-approved collectors, who would collect the used oil, but then ship it off to be burned as a fuel in facilities such as asphalt plants, greenhouses and cement kilns, the Safety-Kleen release says.  

In 2004, Safety-Kleen’s Breslau, Ontario, plant re-refined approximately 40 million gallons of used lubricating oil collected from thousands of generators across Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and the northeastern United States.