Used oil question
Postmaster
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,402
Likes: 1
From: Delisle/Vanscoy, Sk.
Used oil contains carcegens from the burning of the fuel in our cars. That is why oil gets black. These carcegens and other contaminents from the engine are saved in the oils and by pouring them on the ground they leech into the water table and become toxic.
I have 15 gallon drums in my shop that I pour the used oil into and load onto my truck when full. Fortunately a local truck salvage will drain these drums for me to recycle at no cost, a lot of oil change places here charge to bring in oil, yet they are not suspose to. With them doing this then people tend to dump them on the ground. Even our landfills have an area where you dump the oil in to drums and they charge us at the landfills. Claim it to be a recycle fee.
But the problem is what I said earlier. The carcegens from buring gases that get into the oil.
I have 15 gallon drums in my shop that I pour the used oil into and load onto my truck when full. Fortunately a local truck salvage will drain these drums for me to recycle at no cost, a lot of oil change places here charge to bring in oil, yet they are not suspose to. With them doing this then people tend to dump them on the ground. Even our landfills have an area where you dump the oil in to drums and they charge us at the landfills. Claim it to be a recycle fee.
But the problem is what I said earlier. The carcegens from buring gases that get into the oil.
Hotshot
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 18,423
Likes: 9
From: iowa
Well I actually have a good place to get rid of my used oil. One of the shops I used to work for provides me with a 30 gal barrel, and when I get it full I take it down to him, and he gives me another empty one. He then uses that oil in a waste oil heater that he has installed in the shop thus reducing considerably the amount of fuel oil that he has to buy to keep the place heated.
Senior User
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 376
Likes: 0
Wondering if you can even buy re-refined oil now a days....I used it 35 years ago ($2 for a 2 gallon steel can) when I was a kid driving junkers...I heard the same thing back then about it being better...didnt have any detergents though...was great for those cars we kids used to buy for $25 or $50 ...funny...back then... they seemed sooo old when they were only about 6 or 7 years old. NOW that pretty new.....times change
Senior User
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 376
Likes: 0
the toxins in the oil are heavy metals like copper and lead and aluminum from bearing wear and all the unburned and burned blowby from the rings which contains the chemicals that make up gasoline/diesel like benzine and toluine and whatever your area govt dictates for octane boost ...these chemicals cause a variety of diseases in humans... like parkinsons disease/leukemia/cancer and liver /kidney problems when ingested from contaminated water. Dumping on the ground is a bad idea. If a local govt is oiling a back road call your state DEC or the federal EPA and report them.
New User
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 0
Likes: 24
Have a look at this site 
http://www.epa.gov/cpg/products/lubricat.htm
http://www.epa.gov/cpg/pdf/vehicle.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/cpg/products/lubricat.htm
http://www.epa.gov/cpg/pdf/vehicle.pdf
Logistics Pro
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,884
Likes: 180
From: Morgan Hill, CA
My dad always swore that the microbes in the soil would break it down and it was no big deal. I never believed him though... Even though he has a degree in chemical engineering from Berkeley. I drain my oil right back into the Delo 400 gallon jugs and bring them to Kragen. They let me pour them for free into a recycle bin in the back.
Cargo Master
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 2,542
Likes: 22
From: Murphysboro, IL
I've always kind of wondered....... Oil and lead come from the ground....... yet it is a pollutant to the ground to put it back in the ground? yeah I know about the stuff that's in the refined oil that isn't in the crude but it still baffles me a little bit.
Since I have the dealer do my oil changes I don't have near that much, but what I take out of the four wheeler, tractor and zero turns and wahtever else I put in jugs and use it to start bruch fires or (don't tell the EPA) spray on the gras growing through the oil and chip driveway. Lately all my used oil is being used to saturate about a 18" diameter stump in front of my house. Of course that stump also has about 25 -1 1/4" holes 18" deep drilled into it to help the saturation process. I cover it once a week (at night) and let it soak in for a week to do it again. It's about time to build a small fire on top of it.
Since I have the dealer do my oil changes I don't have near that much, but what I take out of the four wheeler, tractor and zero turns and wahtever else I put in jugs and use it to start bruch fires or (don't tell the EPA) spray on the gras growing through the oil and chip driveway. Lately all my used oil is being used to saturate about a 18" diameter stump in front of my house. Of course that stump also has about 25 -1 1/4" holes 18" deep drilled into it to help the saturation process. I cover it once a week (at night) and let it soak in for a week to do it again. It's about time to build a small fire on top of it.
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