Glycols

An Everyday Product

Chances are, you’re wearing and holding glycol products right now. Glycols are man-made liquid chemicals that are created from crude oil and natural gas, and they are used in the production of many familiar household items including polyester fabric, plastic bottles and engine coolants.

An Everyday Problem

Most of the approximately 700 million gallons of waste glycol that are produced in the U.S. every year are disposed of in the same way we dispose of the remains of a cup of coffee:

They’re simply poured down the drain.

Our Solution:

Permanent Pollution Prevention.

With our patent-pending process, we can recycle almost 100% of waste glycols produced, returning them to the purity standards required for any application, industrial or otherwise.

Waste Glycol Created Each Year in the United States by Industry

Waste Glycol By Industry

5.5 Billion Gallons Every Year

The world uses 5.5 billion of gallons of glycols each year (about a fifth goes to North America), but these billions still aren’t enough to meet increasing demand, mainly for polyester fabric and plastic bottles.

Domestically, we use about 1.1 billion gallons

Because glycol breaks down in about a week, the EPA currently allows disposal of glycol by release to “surface water,” meaning it can be dumped into streams, rivers, the ocean, and even lakes. These regulations fall tragically short of what is needed to safeguard our water and environment.

Waste Glycol is a Triple Threat

In most cases, this river of waste is undocumented and unaccounted-for, but the effects are no mystery.

Direct exposure to glycol can kill people, animals, and plants, and waste glycol is especially harmful to aquatic life.

Glycol removes oxygen from water as it breaks down, creating a hostile environment even for those organisms not directly exposed to it. These problems are compounded by the fact that waste glycol is often contaminated with the products of industry: toxic heavy metals, like lead and cadmium, as well as esters and other substances that create their own harms.

Use. Clean. Repeat Indefinitely

With GlyEco Technology® waste glycol never becomes glycol waste.

Until now, only automotive antifreeze was subject to any meaningful recycling. Now, with our solutions, waste glycol created by polyester production, HVAC systems, airplane de-icing, medical equipment sterilization, and other industries can be fully recycled and put back to use.

We can also recycle the recycled glycol after its been used again. And again.

It’s a total solution.