Coolant disposal

[earlyre]

No municipal sewage treatment system skips digestion. The aerobic digestion process breaks down the glycol just like anything else in the stream. In fact years ago the City of Milwaukee used to encourage glycol disposal for sustaining the sludge digestion. These days they encourage recycling instead but it's not because of any technical reason.

interesting... my house has an aerobic system instead of a standards septic tank...(latest and greatest when the house was built in '77).. I wonder if i COULD get away with dumping coolant into it...
i probably wouldn't, my brother's house with municipal sanitary sewer is only a bout 2 mi away....

 

[idahopotato]

Heavy metals in sewage, but not from coolant

 

[Drew7a]

I guess I will have to visit someone in a neighboring state. 0 took a look at our states environmental regs and apparently it is illegal to dump coolant in sewer, stating the same

stuff about having heavy metal in the coolant.

 

[ctechbob]

Yes I know it’s been picked up and repeated many times by multiple individuals and entities on the Internet. Generally by those that have an agenda that isn’t actually supported by science.

Ever read any supposed concentrations of these heavy metals? Or how it compares to the rest of the waste stream entering the treatment plant?

I wonder about this as well. Yes on the benzene and other chemicals, but gas doesn't have lead in it, and unless you've got a gasket leak the coolant shouldn't be in contact with combustion byproducts in the first place.

I don't believe most radiators are soldered anymore and if they are I would reason that the lead is gone from that as well as it has most all electronics.

Be interesting to see the actual numbers, from a late model car, not from a 1938 Chevrolet with a lead soldered copper radiator and some 1900's era cooling fluid and leaded gas.

 

[tbm3fan]

Contra Costa County has two drop offs for toxics from light bulbs to oils and all in between.

 

[02zx9r rev2]

I take mine to autozone

 

[JHZR2]

My town has a convenient collection site. I leave it there. If they desire to feed it to the sewage treatment, they are welcome to.

 

[Davejam]

interesting... my house has an aerobic system instead of a standards septic tank...(latest and greatest when the house was built in '77).. I wonder if i COULD get away with dumping coolant into it...
i probably wouldn't, my brother's house with municipal sanitary sewer is only a bout 2 mi away....

Not sure about this. I'm not sure if coolant is really bad for a typical septic system or for the drain field.
If digested nutrients make it to the drain field it would heavily promote growth of roots, etc that would damage the drain field.

 

[JohnnyG]

wonder about this as well. Yes on the benzene and other chemicals, but gas doesn't have lead in it, and unless you've got a gasket leak the coolant shouldn't be in contact with combustion byproducts in the first place.

I'm not sure that the concern today is from lead in the fuel, but some radiators do have their cores soldered in. I doubt that the makers use lead free solder, which is usually required these days for household copper piping.

 

[tyman]

Can I dump household hazardous waste? The Household Hazardous Waste Facility is open to all XXXXXXXX citizens not businesses. Hazardous waste includes:

• Antifreeze
• Chemicals (Household)
• Paint (Oil-based and latex paint)
• Used oil (Businesses can bring this out along with antifreeze only)

ALL Household Hazardous Waste may not exceed 10 gallons at a time and be in 5 gallon containers or less.

 

[exranger06]

My town's transfer station USED to take coolant and oil, until some jerk dumped oil contaminated with PCBs there and ruined it for everyone. Now I have to go to Autozone to get rid of oil, which is fine. But disposing of coolant has become 1000x more inconvenient. The only place I can bring it is the hazardous waste dropoff facility, which is several towns away, and they're only open on Saturdays from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM. And that's only from May through October; they're totally closed the rest of the year.

 

[earlyre]

My town's transfer station USED to take coolant and oil, until some jerk dumped oil contaminated with PCBs there and ruined it for everyone. Now I have to go to Autozone to get rid of oil, which is fine. But disposing of coolant has become 1000x more inconvenient. The only place I can bring it is the hazardous waste dropoff facility, which is several towns away, and they're only open on Saturdays from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM. And that's only from May through October; they're totally closed the rest of the year.

YeeeeaaaaP... this is why my coolant, when i have some, goes into the Municipal sanitary sewer... (which the OH EPA says is A-OK!)
our local faciltity is open by appt. only, and they charge like $10/lb

 

[Wheel]

I wonder about this as well. Yes on the benzene and other chemicals, but gas doesn't have lead in it, and unless you've got a gasket leak the coolant shouldn't be in contact with combustion byproducts in the first place.

I don't believe most radiators are soldered anymore and if they are I would reason that the lead is gone from that as well as it has most all electronics.

Be interesting to see the actual numbers, from a late model car, not from a 1938 Chevrolet with a lead soldered copper radiator and some 1900's era cooling fluid and leaded gas.

A couple manufacturers of coolant list the results from astm d-1384 and astm d-2570. Zerex is one that does, for their g05 it looks like pretty minimal losses of solder and copper under normal situations. Then again, not all situations are normal.
Consider that the usual concern over ingesting coolant is for the ethylene glycol poisoning, not for lead or copper. The dose would be considerably higher if ingested as well.
That said, I'm not advocating pouring on the ground, but to me it sounds like a city septic system could safely dispose of it.