Soltec, a waste management business in Co Westmeath, is investing €1.5 million to enhance its facilities to manage water-based waste.
The business repurposes hazardous chemicals, recycling core ingredients and turning the remainder into fuel. It was founded by Michael Corcoran in 1994, is based in Mullingar and has 31 staff. Over the past five years, €7 million has been invested in developing its facilities.
“We collect hazardous waste from the pharmaceutical and printing industries among others. It’s brought back to our facility in Mullingar, where everything is sampled, and then we decide on the best recovery method for it,” said David Corcoran, a director at Soltec.
“The main thing we do on-site is the distillation of waste solvents. We boil up the solvent, recover the steam and restore it to a liquid to be resold. The residue from the rest is turned into a fuel for the cement industry. We also recover aerosols where we split the gasses, liquid and metal for reuse.”
For context, the Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1992. Soltec arrived two years later, when words like sustainability weren’t really part of the lexicon, yet Michael Corcoran still sought to develop a business where it was at its heart.
“He owned a motor parts business, he was selling car parts and chemicals and noticed the chemicals weren’t necessarily being treated as they should. He bought a small distillation machine, collecting waste first in the locality and then nationwide. From there he recycled them to then sell the chemicals again,” Corcoran said.
“The business has grown nicely, but since our big investment in recent years, it has grown faster. In 2019, we had about 12 staff and now we’re at 31. We’ve increased our capacity and can accept more waste. With sustainability more topical, more companies are looking at where they can get their waste managed locally.”
Soltec is supported by Enterprise Ireland, and Corcoran praised the agency for the help it has provided. “We’ve been dealing with them for 10 years. They are good to get advice from and we’ve also received several grants from them,” he said.
The company was recently named the overall winner at the Pakman awards, which recognise excellence in recycling and waste management in Ireland. Following this success, Corcoran is confident for the year ahead.
“We’re building our capacity to distill more solvents, and we’re looking at new treatment processes, particularly for aqueous waste. We want to come up with our own systems to treat it on site, at present we send it to other companies to manage,” he said.
“We want to keep growing, so we’ll invest substantially year on year. That way, we can provide our customers with more innovative solutions and create more capacity that will help our customers reach their own sustainability targets.”
This Making it Work article was produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland