Reducing Machine Coolant Disposal And Recycling Costs 

The best way to reduce machine Coolant disposal and recycling costs is to filter your machine coolant.  Filtering Machine Coolant can minimize the number of times you have to change your coolant to once a year.  Refer to the Machine Coolant Index for other ways to cut costs with a machine coolant management plan.

Separation

Used machine coolant is generally composed of three things.  

1.  Sludge

Sludge is expensive to haul away but you can sell it.  Safety Kleen quoted $900 a drum to haul it away.  This is because Safety Kleen recycles the coolant as a liquid and does not have the facilities for recycling sludges.  If you collect it and dry it then it can be worth ten cents to fifteen cents a pound because of the metals such as cobalt, chrome and tungsten.  It generally has to be pretty dry. 

If you filter out the solids then you can generally dispose of them in the trash.  It is the opinion of the State of Washington Department of Ecology that filters from coolant filtering operations fit under the classification of “oil filters”.  They need to be gravity drained; crushed and then they can go into the trash. 

2.  Water

Used coolant is generally 90% to 95% water.  The recycler will haul this away.  You can also evaporate the water out.

3.  Oils, greases, etc.  These can be hauled way, re-used and sometimes can be legally burned in a power generation facility