Are there any organisations removing pollutants and waste from the environment to make a profit?

Question

Waste is material.

Pollutants are materials.

The materials of waste and pollutants are, so far, unexploited as a source of product.

Are there any organizations making a profit from "mining" environmental pollutants and industrial waste for reprocessing to gain profit?

A list of these organizations would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Bib business in Kansas.  Our biggest problem is groundwater polution from past practices of manufacturing plants.  There are companies that drill wells, pump groundwater in lagoons and evaporate disolved solvents then pump the water back down.

Answer 2

Whole industries make money off removing pollutants and waste.

The recycling industry - most counties in the US now collect recyclables.  They hire a private firm to haul away these recyclables, sort them, and resell them to processing companies who then melt the glass or aluminum or plastic or pulp the paper to make new products.

Environmental and Hazardous Waster Remediation companies are another business segment.  These are folks cleaning up anything from a broken thermometer in your kid's school to the guys in haz mat suits who cleaned up the mess inside Three Mile Island.  Asbestos removal is probably a really big segment.

The electrical power generation industry is studying how to capture their own CO2 emissions from and pump them into the ground for long term storage.  This same industries already spends millions to buy smoke stack scrubbers to cleanout all varieties of other pollutants like heavy metals.

Everybody involved in building waste water treatment plants to treat what you flush before it hits the rivers and oceans.

And there are lots more opportunities out there.

Answer 3

Of cause they do, Plant Ark, PETA make millions each year, Koyta makes billions,

Answer 4

It seems this lad Micheal was asking  wether the material  considered to be pollutants and waste waste resold and if the reprocessed material itself ,being a product, is sold for a profit.

Most interesting is the idea brought up of taking pollutants ,that exist in the environment as toxic or atleast mildly unpleasant, might be filter out of the environment and reprocessed and then sold for profit.

Sysengineer67 mentions the recycling industry. Which is partly an answer to  michaels question. But them he only mentions the "clean up" of hazardous waste. The action of cleaning then seems to be profitable. How about the reprocessing of the hazardous waste for sale and reuse  for a profit (of course). Is that done?

Bbiways could you provide some financial reports? Are those organizations just recycling businesses as systemengineer67 mentioned?

Lastly, mt_zion crusader, do they make use of the solvents and material they remove from the water? or are they just paid to "clean" the water of solvents.