Waste Management
Protecting the earth’s natural resources is as important
to Chevron as providing the energy sources essential to
improving our quality of life. We actively participate
in all state and federal Pollution Prevention Programs.
Minimizing and Managing Waste
At the Chevron Richmond Refinery, proper waste minimization
and management is a high priority. Employees are always working
to find better ways to reduce waste, reduce what
is generated, and treat and dispose of what remains. The Chevron
Richmond Refinery uses a variety of techniques to reduce or
recycle waste and transform it into useful products. Since
1986, we have reduced the off-site disposal of routinely generated
wastes by more than 75 percent by decreasing waste
sources, recycling waste and
treating waste inside the refinery.
Recycling
The Refinery recycles everything from laser toner cartridges, used batteries, light bulbs, and aerosol cans to newspaper. Our current diversion rate is close to 50 percent and always improving. Our efforts haven't gone unnoticed: we're a frequent winner of the annual WRAP (Waste Reduction Awards Program) award from the California Integrated Waste Management Board.
Following are the results of a number of the Richmond Refinery's recovery and recycling initiatives.
- 1,022,000 barrels (152,000 tons) of oil products were recovered into refinery process units for conversion to salable products
- Process by-product gas treated to remove 99.96 percent of its hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and used as fuel gas, replacing natural gas purchases equivalent to 30 billion standard cubic feet
- 970 tons of spent catalyst was recycled through metals reclamation, catalyst regeneration, and metallurgical smelters to recover the metals for reuse as catalyst and in the steel and copper industry.
- 1558 tons of scrap metal from demolition activities was recycled.
- 20% by volume of solid waste is recycled, primarily wood and cardboard.