Safety-Kleen Systems Inc. said recently that it has landed an exclusive contract to collect used motor oil generated by the United States Postal Service. The Plano, Texas, company called it the largest-ever government contract for used oil recycling.
Under the contract, announced Oct. 20, Safety-Kleen will collect oil from 750 vehicle service centers across the country. Those centers support more than 37,000 post offices and service more than 200,000 postal trucks and vans – the largest civilian fleet in the world. The Postal Service logs 1 billion miles per year and generates 1.5 million gallons of used motor oil.
This contract is important to Safety-Kleen because its a government contract and because were always working to grow our business, spokesman John Kyte said.
The Postal Services used oil was previously collected under a number of local and regional contracts. Kyte said the service will save money and gain efficiencies by switching to a single, national contract with Safety-Kleen.
The company already has a network in place to handle the contract, Kyte said. It operates 170 facilities that gather, collect and store oil in 47 states and seven Canadian provinces. It uses a network of subcontractors to cover other areas.
Safety-Kleen currently collects approximately 200 million gallons of used oil per year. It processes 140 million of those gallons at rerefineries in East Chicago, Ill., and Breslau, Ontario, producing base oil that it uses to make finished lubes or sells to other blenders.