Thermo Fluids launches oil filter recycling (Phoenix)

Thermo Fluids Inc. has made a business of taking dirt out of the automotive industry.

The Scottsdale company is poised to do more than just recycle used oil products, as it has been doing since 1993. In August, it will become what may be the state’s first home for recycling oil filters from auto repair and lube shops.

For Arizona, where it is legal to ship used filters to landfills once they are drained, it represents another step in a growing sustainability chain for the automotive sector, said James Devlin, the company’s CEO.

“We don’t find (dumping filters in landfills) acceptable, and neither do our customers,” he said.

The company is spending about $500,000 to retrofit its Phoenix facility to include a compaction machine that will take the contents of the filters, remove the plastic for recycling and press the steel into roughly 1-cubic-foot boxes destined for reuse, Devlin said.

Thermo Fluids will hire a handful of people for its expansion.

The company’s new service could help establish it as a recycling hub for surrounding states, many of which have to send oil filters as far away as Texas to be recycled, said Roy Schumacher, vice president of market development for Thermo Fluids.

“We fully expect other states to bring the filters here as well,” he said.

The effort will net the company an additional 100,000 to 200,000 gallons of oil that it will feed through its recycling process in preparation for other uses, Devlin said.

Read the full story in the Phoenix Business Journal.