Industrial Degreasers & Sustainability: Recommendations From The AIC

As its name makes clear, the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) is dedicated to sustaining our cultural heritage through the conservation of important historical areas, historical artifacts, and works of art. It may sound like the AIC has nothing to do with the industrial solvent industry, but the conservation goals of the organization are impacted by the use of solvents in terms of solvent toxicity and how solvents are processed after use.

Recommendations for Solvent Sustainability

The AIC is primarily concerned with the conservation of historical and artistic cultural resources, but the organization’s basic recommendations for using industrial solvents are worth noting, as they help lead companies down the path of combining industrial degreasers and sustainability of degreasers in the same, streamlined cleaning process. Below are four excellent recommendations from the AIC that bode well for industrial degreasers and sustainability.

1. Consider Alternative Solvents

If the degreasers you use end up in the waste trap due to their non-recyclable formulation, step one for combining industrial degreasers and solvent sustainability is selecting degreasers that are actually sustainable, such as degreasing solvents that can be condensed and recycled in a sealed parts washing system after the degreasing process is complete.

2. Only Buy What You Need

Only buying the amount of solvent you need benefits the environment by requiring less energy and natural resources to be invested in solvent production. If you routinely perform industrial cleaning operations, you may need a large supply of solvent on hand at all times. Even so, limiting your purchases to only what you need can generate a positive impact over time.

3. Only Use What You Require

Most companies are financially savvy and only use as much degreaser as their cleaning operations require. However, many companies have the option of making their degreasing processes more efficient (e.g., using high boiling degreasers in parts washers that facilitate solvent recycling). Doing so can both benefit the environment and help reduce annual solvent expense for end users.

4. Reuse What You Can

Most degreasers can only be reused to achieve best results after they are purged of soils removed during the degreasing process. So, reusing as much solvent as you can depends on implementing solvent recycling technology that properly prepares degreasers for reapplication. Mentioned above, using parts washers that facilitate solvent recycling is an effective way to achieve the goal.

Need Sustainable Industrial Degreasers?

If so, contact Ecolink. Industrial degreasers and sustainability is one of our areas of speciality, as is sustainability regarding the other categories of solvents that we supply. Solvent sustainability can do more than help preserve some of our most treasured historical, artistic, and natural resources; it can also help companies reduce solvent expenditures and mitigate solvent waste removal cost.

To get started on implementing sustainable degreasers for all of your industrial degreasing applications, contact us today by calling (800) 563-1305, or use our contact form. We look forward to helping you combine industrial degreasers and sustainability of solvents in the same cleaning processes for the benefit of your company and the environment.