New Green Ideas

The Spillpro is a fast, affordable and environmentally friendly fluid recovery system.  The pneumatic vacuum was originally designed as an alternative and improvement over traditional methods of cleaning up spills in shops, and it does that very well: however, new uses are always being discovered for this “Great” pneumatic tool.  Using the air powered vacuum to evacuate crankcase oil directly from the vehicle and filtering oil for recycling (using our special attachment to the Spillpro) are just two of the many beneficial ideas developed.

Our clients have used it for cleaning gas spills, cleaning a diesel spill, antifreeze spills, as well as cleaning up oil spills.  Absorbent pads have an extra step in the end.  Floor dry has really no recycle use and it cost extra to dispose of properly.  Sawdust can be burned in waste to energy plants if available.  Shop towels are handy for small spills, but still require extra steps.  Mops are another traditionally used method for spill cleaning, but this process creates waste that still must be disposed of in special ways.

Our alternative to many of your spills, the Spillpro pneumatic vacuum, makes quick work of your spill cleanup and eliminates much of the disposal costs.  In addition to elimination of most disposal costs, the air-powered vacuum often turns your waste into an asset which helps make the Spillpro a tool that “pays for itself”.  Check out the testimonials on the Great Green Solutions site.

Help the environment – After cleaning up the spill, simply turn the valves and you are able to discharge the recovered fluid into any container for reuse, disposal or recycling.  A Great Green Solution since you have an eco-friendly tool that pays for itself!

Did you know?

• Any oil or petroleum products, chemical or waste that is released in any manner constitutes a spill. There is no minimum amount below which reporting is not required.
• Storm drain inlets collect storm water and guide it through pipes or channels to streams, lakes and rivers.
• A single drum that spills and has its contents reach the storm drain can cost 10-100 times the value of the raw material in cleanup costs.
• If a spill reaches the storm drain, you can face fines of up to $25,000 per day!
• About 2.1 tons of crankcase oil ends up in our rivers and streams every year. A single quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water.
• If spills are not cleaned up immediately, workers can slip and fall.

Traditional methods of shop spill clean up include rags, towels, “kitty litter” or floor dry, absorbent pads, mops, saw dust and floor wipes.  These methods all have something in common; they require special disposal of the waste and offer limited chances for recycling.  This means extra costs for you through the disposal process and tougher compliance.

We have found an alternative that pays for itself.  How does it do it?  By quickly cleaning the spill and storing it in a portable tank.  It does this task by use of a pneumatic (air powered) vacuum on wheels.  Quick pick up, roll to your waste storage and reverse the valves to evacuate the vacuum.  A filter system has been designed for use with the air powered vacuum to clean and reuse your oil and other fluids.  The Spillpro has universal fittings which allow the user to come up with many new beneficial solutions.

Pneumatic Vacuum in Action

Use absorbents wisely

Pigs, pads, pillows, and mats

• Keep these absorbent devices on-hand to prevent very large oil spills from spreading.
• After use, wring out the absorbed fluid into the proper drum for recycling or disposal, and reuse of the absorbents.
• Spent absorbent devices must be disposed of properly. This involves determining whether the spent absorbent is a hazardous waste. Floor sweep (grease sweep, “kitty litter,” absorbent pads, rice hull, etc.)
“These are expensive and very time consuming” -$-$-$ These absorbents should be used only when the spill can not be cleaned with proper equipment. The Spillpro pneumatic tool, which is a fluid cleanup and recovery machine is the best we have found. Shop, rags or dedicated mops with oil remediation products like Bio-Rem 2000 can also be used.
• Restrict the use of these absorbents to cleaning up gasoline,diesel, solvents, oil spills or other hazardous waste chemical spills.
• Use floor sweep until it no longer absorbs fluids. Recycle used floor sweep if possible, or dispose as hazardous waste. Floor sweep can be processed to reclaim and recycle absorbed compounds. Ask your vendor about recycling opportunities for spent floor sweep.

Keeping your shop clean and safe

When used together, the following practices and equipment significantly reduce the amount of water needed to clean shop floors. Minimizing waste water generation will reduce environmental liability and help your shop stay ahead of tightening regulations.

Prevent oil spills from ever reaching the floor.
• Stop if there’’s a drop! Never walk away from an oil spill. If oil spills are not cleaned up immediately: Workers can slip and fall. Oil, antifreeze, and other spilled material can mix and be tracked around your shop and into vehicles. You will spend more time and money washing the floor.
• Mechanics should carry rags so that small spills can be wiped dry when they occur.

In case a medium-sized or larger oil spill or other type spill occurs, cleanup equipment should be well marked. For example, attach red flags to Spill recovery equipment, such as pneumatic tools specific for cleanup and containment of spills, mop buckets with remediation products used for spill cleanup so they can be easily located by workers. Keep all spills out of sewer drains.
• Sweep your floor with a broom every day to prevent unnecessary dirt and contaminant buildup.
• Never hose down your work area! This practice generates large quantities of contaminated wash water that is discharged to a sewer, or worse, is flushed out of the shop to a storm drain.
• If you use a pressure washer to clean your floors, be sure to use a remediation product before you wash. Even if pressure washing is performed by a contractor, your shop is responsible for proper management of the wash water and can be held liable for its illegal disposal. The best way to avoid this liability and the costs associated with pressure washing is to clean up oil spills when and where they occur. A pneumatic vacuum helps to complete this task along with a microbe product to eliminate the small amount remaining. The oil one can recover with the vacuum can then be recycled.

Good housekeeping reduces oil spills and protects you against liability.

Here are several suggestions for limiting waste oil problems in your shop.

Place drip pans under cars.

Use different pans for waste oil and for parts covered with solvents.

Fill drip pans only half-way and then use a funnel to pour the oil into a drum or tank

- $$$ Use dry cleanup methods when you do have oil spills. You can use (I) reusable absorbent pads, ( 2) a bristle broom and brush (3) mops that absorb only oily liquids. Wring out or pour the waste oil you clean up into a container or tank. Clean any left over waste oil. Discard the cleanup debris in a separate container
from the waste oil. Use clay absorbents or sawdust, or alternatives such as corn cobs or peat.

$ Build curbs around your waste oil storage area to contain 110% of the volume of the largest waste oil
container or tank.

$$$$$ All of these are good ideas. However, the best method to save time, hassle and money is to use a pneumatic tool, such as the Spillpro, to pick up your oil spills. The Spillpro, with a special attachment, can filter and help you recycle all of your used oil.

The majority of human-induced oil pollution occurs on dry land, although maritime spills gain most of the notoriety. For instance, many people are familiar with the Exxon Valdez crude oil spill of 1989. This occurred when an oil tanker made contact with a coral reef in the Gulf of Alaska and unloaded about 11 million gallons of oil into the water. The environmental effects of the oil spill were disastrous, and many species of wildlife were adversely affected.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative impact of this disaster, it at least brought public awareness to the dangers inherent to petrol spills. Back on land, many large industrial operations have created contingency plans for what to do when an oil spill occurs. Many such businesses rely on the Spillpro as a trusted tool in the fight to clean up harmful contaminants.

One use of bioremediation is the application of biological microbes for the clean up of hazardous oil spills or remaining film resulting in a safe, efficient and cost-effective solution. Bioremediation uses microbes, enzymes, oxygen and other nutrients to chemically transform oil into carbon dioxide and water. BioRem-2000 Surface Cleaner™ increases the surface area of the oil while the enzymes break down the contaminants into smaller molecules. The enzymes then attract the microbes and consume the oil leaving only water and carbon dioxide as by-products. Once the reaction is complete, the enzymes break free to attach to another hydrocarbon source in order to repeat the same reaction.

GGS Team

We love to fish and have used lots of outboard motor oil over the years. Once, I had my Honda put down on the floor incorrectly for a month. When I set the outboard motor up, over a pint of oil poured down the side and onto the concrete patio. This was the first time I had a bioremediation solution with me for something like this event. I sprayed the microbe solution on the spill and outboard motor. The BioRem-2000 surface cleaner ate the oil up and zero stain remains. Impressive.

Anybody involved in this type of hobby knows, you will have oil on your hands or around your equipment at different times. We take the solution with us in a small spray bottle and it has been handy many times to clean our mess or hands in a complete and green way. Kudos!

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the waste oil from one oil change (approximately one gallon of oil) can ruin the taste of 1 million gallons of drinking water – enough water to supply 50 people for one year. An estimated 200 million gallons of used motor oil, about 1/3 of the total United States consumption, is improperly disposed of each year.

That is just automobiles — imagine trucks and large equipment

The Solution…
There is a common belief that motor oil cannot be reused after an oil change. This, however, is not true. Motor oil can be reprocessed and reused in furnaces to produce heat, and in power plants to generate electricity for homes schools, and businesses. Two gallons of recycled motor oil can generate enough energy to operate the average household for about one day, cook 48 meals in a microwave oven or vacuum a home for 15 months. In addition, after used oil has been properly recycled, (This can be done with simple filtration through pneumatic equipment), it can be used again for lubricating oils that meet the same specifications as motor oil created from new materials. Recycling used oil would save the United States 1.3 million barrels of oil per day.

Bioremediation has diverse effects on different sites of saturated soils. The most vital factors that control the effectiveness of bioremediation are the permeability of the soil and the biodegradability of the organic compound. The type of soil will determine its permeability. Fine-grained soils such as clays and silts have a lower permeability then coarse grain soils like sand and gravel. Bioremediation is cost competitive and requires 45-140 dollars per ton of soil to biodegrade (For certain types of bioremediation). This is exceedingly cheap and is a massive economic advantage so companies who just lost capital with a petroleum spill can afford for the site to be remediated. Bioremediation Techniques can be easily combined to make the clean up process more efficient.. This can lead to future research of bioremediation to see if it can be combined with other techniques and maybe even become a part of every day life.