Castrol has announced the launch of ‘Castrol MoreCircular’, designed to reduce the carbon footprint of business lubricants in the United States.

Castrol MoreCircular encompasses the entire process of collecting used oil from fleet customers, rerefining it and integrating re-refined base oil into premium lubricants for supply to businesses.

The program can help public sector fleets looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

Pairing Castrol's Lubricant Technology with Safety-Kleen's Collection of Used Oil

‘Castrol MoreCircular’ has been created in collaboration with Safety-Kleen, an environmental services subsidiary of Clean Harbors Inc. Following successful market trials, Safety-Kleen and Castrol signed a multi-year collaboration agreement.

The ‘Castrol MoreCircular’ Program will officially launch on May 20, 2024, at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Las Vegas.

The ‘Castrol MoreCircular’ offer combines Castrol’s lubricant technology with Safety-Kleen’s wide geographic reach and expertise in collecting and re-refining used oil.

“Safety-Kleen is proud to partner with Castrol, a recognized industry leader, to help to bring increased circularity to the United States lubricants industry,” said Brian Weber, President of Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions, a segment of Clean Harbors, Inc. “We are North America’s largest collector of used oil with more than 200 branch locations that safely and compliantly collect more than 250 million gallons annually. Our operations span across every major metropolitan area in the U.S. and we can meet the waste oil collection needs of any customer of Castrol’s ‘MoreCircular’ offering.”

The program is a result of an investment in research and development aimed at integrating re-refined base oils into lubricant formulations while ensuring that the new product range continues to meet or exceed the latest OEM and industry standards.

Successful trials with a number of Castrol business customers demonstrated the high-quality, high-performance attributes of these lower carbon footprint lubricants, which showed the same performance as the version containing virgin base oil.

How the Program Works

The end-to-end offer begins with the collection of used lubricants from ‘Castrol MoreCircular’ customers such as fleet maintenance shops and industrial sites.

The used oil is then re-processed, enabling around 70% of it to be recovered as base oil. Re-refined base oil is combined with Castrol’s technology to blend premium lubricants, resulting in an estimated 20-40% lower carbon footprint compared to Castrol’s traditional products.

Re-refined base oil makes up at least 65% of the base oil in each MoreCircular lubricant; the size of the carbon footprint reduction depends partly on the percentage of RRBO used. When participating business customers purchase these lubricants, they help develop a more circular lubricants industry in the United States.

Of the more than one billion gallons of used oil generated annually in the United States, only around 20% are currently re-refined back to base oils. With the launch of ‘MoreCircular,’ Castrol is moving toward embracing circularity – a key principle of Castrol’s PATH360 sustainability strategy.

“Our ability to collect used oil from across the country and reprocess a waste product means that much of it can be used again and again. Delivering these lower-carbon-footprint lubricants can help our business customers meet their sustainability goals with the same high-quality and high-performance they expect from Castrol,” Castrol Americas CEO Andreas Osbar said. “We believe the time is right to lead the market with an integrated more circular – and as a result, lower-carbon-footprint - offer as our business customers are searching for levers to help de-carbonize their operations. This is a first-of-its kind, nationwide offer in the US and we’re excited to partner with Safety-Kleen to deliver it.”