Clean Harbors

Clean Harbors is an environmental and industrial services company founded in 1980 and based in Massachusetts, with operations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. It provides end-to-end hazardous and non-hazardous waste management, emergency spill response, industrial cleaning and maintenance, and recycling services to a customer base spanning the chemical, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, refining, railroad and utility sectors, along with government agencies. The business is organized into two reporting segments, Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions.

Waste management and disposal

Technical Services covers the packaging, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste at company-owned facilities. Clean Harbors operates more than 100 waste disposal facilities in the United States, including incineration, landfill, wastewater and other treatment sites, and states that it runs the largest number of hazardous waste incinerators, landfills and treatment, storage and disposal facilities in North America. Waste is accepted in drum and bulk form as liquids, solids, semi-solids, sludges and gases, and moved through a combined truck, rail and ship transportation network.

Household hazardous waste is handled separately, through a drive-up drop-off service and through temporary one-day community collection events, with material transported in licensed vehicles to company facilities for recycling or disposal.

Recycling and reclamation

Recycling, reuse and reclamation options are offered as an alternative to disposal for chemicals, solvents, oil, electrical equipment and precious metals. Nine recycling centers support the solvent recovery program, which the company describes as backed by more than 40 years of experience and ranging from conventional recycling to tolling and repurposing for industrial end uses. High BTU liquids are blended for use as alternate fuels.

Industrial and field services

Industrial and field work runs alongside the disposal network and feeds additional waste volumes into it. Clean Harbors acquired HydroChemPSC in 2021, an industrial cleaning, specialty maintenance and utilities services provider, and rebranded it as HPC Industrial in 2022.

• High-pressure and chemical cleaning, decoking and materials processing at refineries, mines, chemical plants and manufacturing facilities
• Daylighting and hydro excavation
• Tank cleaning, remediation, decontamination and liquid and dry vacuum services
• Emergency spill response on land or water using OSHA-certified personnel, supported by a 24-hour response hotline
• Oilfield production support, lodging services and surface rentals

Chemical packing

Chemical packing services cover lab pack disposal, chemical waste removal, single and multiple laboratory moves, DEA controlled substance management for Schedule I to V material, and radioactive services handled under DOT, TDG, NRC and other federal, state, provincial and local regulations. Staff chemists perform lab packing for schools, hospitals, research laboratories and the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries. Both full-service and self-service options are available, including CleanPack cabinet services and an inventory management system.

On-site programs and Safety-Kleen

The InSite Services program, offered for more than 20 years, places Clean Harbors staff at a customer site to run waste consolidation and lab packing, regulatory inspections and laboratory decontamination, with a related administration service covering vendor management and invoice pass-through. Through its Safety-Kleen subsidiary, the company supplies parts washing, containerized waste collection and other environmental services to commercial, industrial and automotive customers. Safety-Kleen is described as delivering closed-loop recycling, reclaiming and reuse of used oil and cleaning solvent over more than 65 years, and Clean Harbors states that it is the largest re-refiner and recycler of used oil in North America.