Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc. is a company that provides services such as collecting and recycling oil, providing industrial cleaning, and handling

industrial waste Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and ...

. In addition, their products include cleaning equipment,

antifreeze An antifreeze is an additive which lowers the freezing point of a water-based liquid. An antifreeze mixture is used to achieve freezing-point depression for cold environments. Common antifreezes also increase the boiling point of the liquid, all ...

and

coolant A coolant is a substance, typically liquid, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corrosio ...

, windshield cleaner, and re-refined oil products.

History

Safety-Kleen was started in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Ben Palmer invented the

parts washer A parts washer is a piece of equipment used to remove contaminants or debris, such as dirt, grime, carbon, oil, grease, metal chips, cutting fluids, mold release agents, ink, paint, and corrosion from workpieces. Parts washers are used in new ...

which he decided to

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

to customers and service by removing and replenishing the solvent in the machines. In 1968, the Safety-Kleen business was acquired by Chicago Rawhide, and under the leadership of Don Brinckman Safety-Kleen became a

publicly traded company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

and enjoyed tremendous growth and business success over 30 years, eventually joining the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

. In 1973, a UK-based off-shoot of Safety-Kleen was created. And in 1998 Safetykleen Europe, without a hyphen, separated from the US organisation to become a separate company that now operates in 14 countries in Europe and beyond. In 1998, Safety-Kleen fell victim to a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

by Laidlaw Environmental. Afterwards, the financial situation of the company deteriorated and finally the company filed for and re-emerged from

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy.Safety-Kleen.com - Our Story
/ref> In this period, the company hid the failure of the merger and in 2002, civil and criminal charges were filed by the SEC and the United States Attorney's Office against Safety-Kleen and four of its former senior executives for "perpetrating a massive accounting fraud from at least November 1998 through March 2000." A $200 million judgement was subsequently enforced by a Canadian court. The company successfully emerged from bankruptcy and refinanced its senior debt in 2005. In 2012,

Clean Harbors Clean Harbors, Inc. is an American provider of environmental and industrial services, including hazardous waste disposal for companies, including Fortune 500 companies, small waste generators and federal, state, provincial and local governments ...

acquired Safety-Kleen. Safety-kleen is also an official partner of

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

as part of the NASCAR green initiative.

References

External links

Safety-Kleen Web site
Companies based in Richardson, Texas Recycling industry {{US-manufacturing-company-stub