Plastics manufacturers around the world are focusing more on sustainability, looking for ways to reduce waste and minimize the impact of their operations on the environment.
Reducing plastics pollution is a particular focus, given the widespread use of plastics in a variety of essential consumer, health care and technology products.
Petroleum Service Corp. (PSC), a leading provider of product handling and site logistics services, is now offering innovative sustainability solutions to help manufacturers achieve their sustainability goals and improve Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) compliance.
"We work in more than 35 resin plants across the country, and there was a high level of customer interest across the board for PSC to begin offering sustainability services. It was just a natural fit for us because of the depth of our operational expertise and our involvement in supply chain logistics," said Karen Bryant, vice president of strategy for PSC. "We also offer the added advantage of being able to leverage our footprint to provide efficient sustainability services with fewer people than a multi-company approach, since we're already working in many of the same areas within the plant."
The company's new sustainability business is focused on helping producers reduce and eliminate pellet, flake and powder loss.
Some of the services offered include:
- Plant assessments/audits.
- OCS sustainability plan development and implementation.
- Procedure writing and checklist development.
- Routine "pellet patrol" inspections.
- Employee training and sustainability awareness campaigns.
- On-site scrap resin collection services via dedicated and on-call crews.
- Scrap buying/selling to generate revenue for customers.
- Packaging, warehousing and upgrading of scrap through additional processing.
- Comprehensive, data-based monthly sustainability progress reports.
- Environmental impact summaries.
- Stakeholder presentation materials.
PSC works to identify and implement solutions for collecting and processing scrap resins to maximize their value.
"That's an important part of our sustainability business model, to help further a circular economy in which nothing goes to waste, and everything is transformed," Bryant added. "We look for new recycling opportunities for our customers and other ways to extend the pellet lifecycle and improve the quality of the scrap for better resale value."
For example, at one site, PSC's sustainability technicians have been vacuuming up pellets scattered along thousands of feet of railroad tracks.
"We're using a screen to separate the pellets from the ballast rock and then utilizing some special processes we've developed for cleaning, sorting and drying the pellets," said Chris Lendo, vice president of sustainability for PSC. "Most of this scrap resin is now able to be recycled, generating an income stream for the customer. Prior to implementing these new processes, most of the material was being disposed of in a landfill."
The right equipment for the job
PSC has made a considerable investment in specialized equipment for this new business line including:
- High-dump vacuum trucks, eliminating the need for dangerous ramps.
- Mobile packaging units with unique capabilities such as product drying, angel hair removal, ferrous material removal, product blending, product transfer, remote packaging and sampling.
- Custom-fitted roll-off dumpsters that can be strategically placed at collection areas throughout a site.
- Pneumatic bulk trucks, van and grain trailers for loading and transporting reclaimed resin.
- Company owned and operated rolloff trucks and truck tractors for product movement.
On July 1, PSC opened a new sustainability warehouse located in the Port 10 Logistics Center in Baytown, Texas. The nearly 70,000-square-foot facility provides ample storage space for up to 7 MM pounds of packaged product, with an acre of parking space for the company's sustainability equipment.
"Deliveries of scrap plastic are received at the warehouse where the materials are processed, quality tested and packaged via a semi-automated conveyor and packaging line into supersacks and gaylord boxes," Lendo said.
PSC offers an optimized network of satellite warehouses located within 50 miles of most resin producers in the U.S. Gulf Coast region to provide responsive and reliable services.
"In addition to the packaging operation, we also run our 24-hour dispatching center from the Baytown warehouse so that we can get the needed personnel and equipment on the road quickly to respond to emergency spills, as well as to support project turnarounds and shutdowns," Lendo added.
Operation Clean Sweep is a registered trademark of the Plastics Industry Association and the American Chemistry Council.
For more information on the sustainability, product handling and site logistics services provided by PSC, visit www.petroleumservice.com or call (281) 991-3500.
SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS FOR COMMON MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS
PROBLEM: "Angel hair" created in the pelletizing/transfer process is loaded into railcars, resulting in quality issues and lost revenue for resin customers, with material often rejected, returned or downgraded.
SOLUTION: Process product through the mobile packaging unit to remove angel hair and restore it to prime quality by circulating material through a closed-loop fi lter system before reloading back into railcar.
PROBLEM: During the car wash process, resin remaining in returned empty railcars is washed out into sumps and contaminated, resulting in devaluation of reclaimed product and potential loss to the environment.
SOLUTION: Strategically position a custom-engineered railcar heel vacuum recovery system ahead of the car wash process to reclaim resin remaining in cars, keeping it clean and dry for improved quality.
PROBLEM: Resin that escapes process containment is scattered on the ground or in wastewater streams, resulting in contamination and devaluation of reclaimed product and potential loss to the environment.
SOLUTION: Operation Clean Sweep "pellet patrol" to keep resin from spreading throughout the plant, using PSCʼs fl eet of high-dump vacuum trucks featuring advanced technology and integrated grounding systems.
