When a hazardous waste hauler picks up the 50 gallon drums of used solvent from your shop, you are relieved all of further responsibility for that hazardous liquid waste, right? 

"Dead wrong!" says David Albers, national sales manger for Omega Recycling Technologies. "Read your waste hauling contract. It tells you that, under Federal law, the waste hauler cannot relieve the waste generator of legal responsibility for the safe disposal of the waste. RCRA (Federal law) gives the waste generator- the body shop owner- full responsibility for the waste he created. If the waste truck rolls over and spills the waste, or the waste handler otherwise mishandles it, the generator of the waste is still liable for cleanup."

And as you might imagine, Alber's company, Omega, wants to help minimize the shop's liability by reducing that liquid solvent into a much smaller amount of easy-to-manage solid waste. The company makes a line of tool cleaning and solvent recycling equipment specifically for the collision repair industry, and will be showing that equipment at NACE Booth 1245.

"Our tool cleaning and recycling systems address the three R's," said Albers. "Recycling, reuse and reduction of waste." Albers claims that even a one-painter shop, where spray guns are cleaned in a 5 gallon bucket, can save money by leasing one of Omega's systems- leases start at $129 per month. How will they save money?

"First, you reuse the solvent, so you're buying less new solvent. Second, you tremendously reduce the amount of waste you must pay to haul away, and third, you eliminate completely the responsibility for disposing of hazardous liquid waste."

The Omega system turns the liquid waste into solid waste- dried paint pucks. "Six 50-gallon drums of liquid waste are reduced to one drum of solid waste. And if it should ever spill, you just pick up the paint pucks and throw them back in the drum," explained Albers. "And there's no cost or liability for cleaning up liquid waste."

Liquid waste adds up quickly in body shops. A single 50-gallon drum can weigh 400 pounds, according to Albers, which places the waste generator into the "small waste generator" category for EPA reporting purposes. "With the Omega system, we can reduce the waste to way under the 200 pound monthly limit. When we do this, the shop is conditionally exempt from the burdensome and costly EPA compliance procedures." Albers noted that a large shop can easily find itself in the "large generator" status category with over 2,000 pounds of waste each month, "and the costs of compliance alone can often justify our systems."

Albers noted that some of the biggest players in the industry, including Caliber Collision and Allstate's Sterling Collision, are now using Omega equipment. Caliber has already installed systems at all of their California and Texas shops, and Sterling is currently installing them at its locations.

Equipment Features

The solvent cleaners/recyclers will be on display at NACE in Dallas, Booth 999. The most popular equipment for body shops are the combination gun washers and solvent recyclers. There is a three and a six gallon unit. Both wash tools, paint spray guns and parts with clean solvent and then recycle the dirty solvent, generating a small amount of solid waste. Simple to operate and fully automatic, these units continuously provide clean solvent while eliminating the hazardous liquid wastes derived from the gun cleaning process.

OMEGA solvent recyclers do not use filters or any type of chemicals to achieve solvent purification. They are standalone units that function on the proven concept of distillation. The boiler shell, constructed of heavy gage stainless steel, is itself surrounded by diathermic oil. The oil is heated by electric resistance, bringing the polluted solvent to its boiling point. Pure solvent vapors are then channeled to an air or water-cooled condenser and condensed pure solvent, in liquid form, is then directed to a collecting container for reuse. The units are explosion proof and are UL 2208 certified.