Overview / Background:
Increasingly, manufacturers and producers in the business of chemistry are faced with the management of their product which is at their customer locations. The product may be unused, excess, expired or in damaged packaging.
The Challenge:
Managing unused product at remote customer locations safely, in an efficient and cost-effective manner, in compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. Often the volume of material is relatively small, yet still needs to be cared for.
Solution:
At the request of our customers, WTS has developed a customer-specific portal whereby materials that need to be managed at out-plant locations can be managed systematically. The portal virtually collects the location, volume, packaging, and description of the material. In addition, SDS and any other pertinent project and product data are uploaded. This serves as the basis for preparing for the safe return, transfer to an alternate end user, or transfer for end disposal of the material.
From this information set, the WTS team of Chemists, landfill and sustainability strategists, and logistics experts go to work to determine first if there are any alternate uses for the materials utilizing our WTS Materials Hub. If the material is required to be disposed of, WTS manages all aspects of this disposal including characterization of the material, obtaining temporary IDs if required, overseeing the proper preparations for shipping the material including packaging/repackaging, labels, markings, and shipment documentation (profiles and manifests).
The transfer of the materials is then coordinated utilizing the vast WTS network of transportation assets, processors, end users and transfer storage and disposal facilities (TSDFs).
Results:
Damaged and expired product was identified in locations including Hawaii, Guam, and Calgary. While the inventory of product was small, only 1-4 pallets at each location, it was important to find a cost-effective and efficient way to dispose of this material without inconveniencing the customer site where it was located.
Utilizing our network of approved suppliers, WTS was able to assist with these disposal requests and helped to facilitate the proper disposal of these materials. In the case of Hawaii and Guam, the material was brought by vessel back into the mainland US for proper disposal at an approved and permitted TSDF. The material in Calgary was disposed of at a local TSDF.
The customers were satisfied with the response time and all shipments were completed safely following local and federal regulations without our customer incurring additional costs for them to travel to these remote locations for management of the material. WTS was able to extend their environmental ethic to these remote locations and allow our customer to further enhance both the relationship with their customer and the ongoing sale of their product.
