March 29, 2024

EN ESPA

Riding the Green Wave

Small business owners around the state are finding a market for products and services that promote sustainability.

| 5/26/2008

Clark Environmental - Mulberry

Beth Clark
Beth Clark’s Mulberry business uses thermal technology to process petroleum sludge. [Photo: Jeffrey Camp]

Cleaning up petroleum sludge isn’t a glamorous business. But with thousands of underground gas tanks in central Florida and soil along highways contaminated with fuel and other nonhazardous substances, there’s plenty of waste to be cleaned up.

Beth Clark, 52, president of Clark Environmental, opened the Mulberry company with her husband Jim, 56, in 1991. It’s been a rocky ride, including two periods in which the couple “almost lost the company” due to competition and a delay in opening the company’s state-of-the-art $2 million thermal treatment facility in 2004.

Since the 75-ton-per-hour high-temperature thermal treatment plant came online, though, business has been brisk. Driving the cleanup in part is a Florida statute mandating that gas stations replace their tanks by 2009. In addition to petroleum waste from gas station tanks and contaminated soil along highways, Clark Environmental has worked with developers to clean up building sites and with power companies to clean areas around transformers hit by lightning. The company also is positioning itself to handle coal tar in the ground.

Sludge treatment begins by separating liquids and solids at Clark Environmental’s conventional waste processing facility. Solids go through thermal processing, which includes a thorough heating and incineration process. The final residue, called “cleanfill,” is sold for road construction and commercial construction projects.

The company also makes “drum runs” around the state to pick up hazardous and nonhazardous wastes and offers a hazardous waste disposal service. In 2007, Clark Environmental, which employs 26, posted $7 million in sales for the first time, and this year, Beth says she expects that number to increase, despite the recession. “We’re actually holding on pretty good,” she says, “It seems to be working.”

Tags: Florida Small Business, Entrepreneur

Florida Business News

Ballot Box

Should Congress ban the popular social media app TikTok in the U.S.?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Need more details
  • What is TikTok?
  • Other (Comment below)

See Results

Florida Trend Media Company
490 1st Ave S
St Petersburg, FL 33701
727.821.5800

© Copyright 2024 Trend Magazines Inc. All rights reserved.