Castrol MoreCircular used-oil recycling program includes collecting, re-refining, and repurposing base oil into lubricants to be put back into supply chains. The program launches in May.
Castrol is partnering with Safety-Kleen, an environmental services subsidiary of Clean Harbors Inc., under a multi-year agreement. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
The program combines Castrol’s lubricant technology with Safety-Kleen’s geographic reach and expertise in collecting and re-refining used oil. It is a result of significant investment in research and development aimed at integrating re-refined base oils into lubricant formulations while ensuring that the new product range continues to meet or exceed the latest original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and industry standards.
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Successful trials with Castrol business customers demonstrated the high-quality, high-performance attributes of these lower carbon footprint1 lubricants, which showed the same performance as the version containing virgin base oil, according to Castrol.
How Castrol MoreCircular works
The end-to-end offer begins with the collection of used lubricants from fleet maintenance shops and other sites. The used oil is then re-processed, enabling around 70% of it to be recovered as base oil. Castrol uses the re-refined base oil to blend premium lubricants, resulting in an estimated 20% to 40% lower carbon footprint compared to its traditional products, according to the company. Re-refined base oil makes up at least 65% of the base oil in each MoreCircular lubricant; the size of the carbon footprint reduction depends partly on the percentage of RRBO used.
Of the more than one billion gallons of used oil generated annually in the United States, only around 20% are currently re-refined back to base oils, according to Castrol.
“Our ability to collect used oil from across the country and reprocess a waste product means that much of it can be used again and again,” said Andreas Osbar, CEO Castrol Americas, in a statement. “Delivering these lower-carbon-footprint lubricants can help our business customers meet their sustainability goals with the same high-quality and high-performance they expect from Castrol.
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“We believe the time is right to lead the market with an integrated more circular—and as a result, lower-carbon-footprint—offer as our business customers are searching for levers to help de-carbonize their operations,” he said.
“Safety-Kleen is proud to partner with Castrol, a recognized industry leader, to help to bring increased circularity to the United States lubricants industry,” said Brian Weber, president of Safety-Kleen sustainability solutions, in a statement. “We are North America’s largest collector of used oil with more than 200 branch locations that safely and compliantly collect more than 250 million gallons annually. Our operations span across every major metropolitan area in the U.S. and we can meet the waste oil collection needs of any customer of Castrol’s ‘MoreCircular’ offering.”
