Waste and Recycling

Lubrizol is committed to reducing the amount of waste from our operations and reusing and recycling materials when possible. Successful waste management programs not only reduce environmental impact, but also provide cost and efficiency benefits for Lubrizol and our customers.  View our Global Sustainability Scorecard.

Our facilities around the world are highly active in reducing waste.

• Finding beneficial reuse for waste from our manufacturing processes instead of disposal, such as replacements for commercial chemical products
• Removing impurities from chemicals contaminated during use so that they can be reused for their original purpose. Some waste streams can be used as fuels to power equipment or generate electricity and heat buildings.
• Recycling items like glass, paper and cardboard, plastics, wood, scrap metal, cafeteria waste, and office electronic equipment (e-waste), in addition to chemical recycling

Ohio Plant Converts Water Treatment Waste to Natural Gas

The company has already made significant progress in reducing pre-packing waste, reclassifying and improving waste packaging, and converting wastewater into a useful product.

As one example, Lubrizol’s site in Avon Lake, Ohio, will send water treatment waste to a partner’s facility to undergo anaerobic digestion, which converts the carbon-based sludge into compressed natural gas (CNG). This conversion uses natural biological processes that are similar to how leaves on the forest floor are digested.

With extensive regulatory review and viability testing now complete, the plant is using commercial digestion to convert water treatment waste. This initiative is significantly improving sustainability and circular usage of carbon-based materials, with the potential to eliminate 60 percent of the plant’s landfill waste while generating clean electricity. Eventually, the facility’s 4.2 million pounds of water treatment waste will generate more than 1 million cubic feet of natural gas, which will be added to the electrical grid in the Cleveland area and used in CNG-powered municipal vehicles.