Recycling and recovery
Solvent recovery
Distillation that returns usable product and cuts the volume needing destruction.
Solvent recovery separates usable solvent from contaminants by distillation. The recovered fraction returns to service or is sold on, and only the still bottoms require disposal. For most generators this costs materially less than incinerating the whole stream.
Source: 40 CFR 261.3(c) on derived-from, and Part 268 for treatment standardsHow it works
Spent solvent is heated to the boiling point of the target component. Vapour is condensed and collected as recovered product, while contaminants, dissolved solids, resins and heavy ends remain as still bottoms. A single pass typically recovers between 60 and 90 percent by volume depending on the stream.
What determines viability is not the solvent, it is the contamination. A parts washer solvent carrying suspended solids recovers well. The same solvent carrying dissolved polymer or a wide mix of other solvents may not separate cleanly enough to be worth it.
Streams that recover well
- Parts washer and degreaser solvent, F001 to F005
- Paint gun and line flush solvent from coatings operations
- Printing and ink cleanup solvent
- Laboratory and analytical solvent, where volumes justify it
- Single component streams kept segregated at source
Segregation at the point of generation is the single biggest lever on recovery yield. A dedicated drum per solvent recovers; a mixed drum usually does not.
The still bottoms still need a route
Recovery does not eliminate disposal, it concentrates it. Still bottoms carry the original waste codes under the derived-from rule and go to incineration or fuels blending. The point is that the volume requiring that route has fallen sharply.
See fuels blendingCommon questions
Can I get my own solvent back?
Closed loop recovery returns your material to you rather than pooling it. It costs more per gallon than pooled recovery and makes sense where the solvent is high value or the specification is tight.
Does recovered solvent meet virgin specification?
Often close, but not automatically. Recovered solvent is tested against your specification. Many operations run recovered solvent in first stage cleaning and virgin in final stage, which captures most of the saving without risking the finish.
What if my solvent is mixed?
Mixed streams can sometimes be fractionated, but yields fall and cost rises. If recovery matters to you, segregating at source is worth far more than anything we can do downstream.
Related services
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This page summarizes federal requirements and is not legal advice. State programs can be more stringent than the federal baseline. Verify against current federal and state regulations before acting. Last reviewed September 2026.