WHAT ARE SORBENTS?

What are sorbents?

Sorbents are commonly used for oil and chemical spill clean-up and come in a variety of forms; powders, pads, pillows, booms, etc.  Sorbents can also be used to improve customer and worker safety by absorbing spills that could create slip and fall hazards.

Most sorbents currently available are made from virgin polyurethane (foam) and polypropylene (fabric) materials. Many natural or alternative sorbent products are clay and natural fiber based. These alternatives frequently lack durability or absorb water in addition to oil and chemicals, reducing their effectiveness and elevating disposal costs because of this additional weight. 

Why are Earthwise Sorbents different?

Earthwise Sorbents, a San Diego, California based company, offers an array of highly effective sorbent products, made from recycled and repurposed foam and fabric materials. Earthwise Sorbents repurposes polyurethane wastes into high performance absorbent pillows and recycles plastic and polypropylene wastes from other large vendors into melt-blown pads, sweeps, and booms. This reduces the carbon footprint of manufacturing our products and gives foam and fabric wastes a second life as environmental clean-up products.

Earthwise products are oleophilic (absorb oil) and hydrophobic (repel water) for on-land and in-water applications. Our pads and sock booms target oil specifically (oil-only) or a wider array of chemicals (universal). Our sweeps, open-net and strand booms target petroleum spills in water - sheens as well as slicks. All our products have been third-party tested in comparison to industry standard products and demonstrate equivalent or better absorbency.