Disposing of used oil

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My city has a nice recycling center where I can dump my jugs of motor oil into.

They also take electronics, oil filters, and other items for recycling.
 
I take mine to the local Tractor Supply. Dump it in the tank myself. No drama.
I went to AZ once. The amount of grief they gave wasn't worth it.
You would have thought they were giving me a free kidney.
 
I just dump it into my nearest creek, which conveniently is only about 40yds from my back yard.
 
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My local town takes used oil. They use it in the city shop. They probably would come get it from me to if i had 30 gallons.

Ask around im sure someone would love some used oil.
 
Originally Posted By: earthbound
I just dump it into my nearest creek, which conveniently is only about 40yds from my back yard.
Better hope the EPA doesn't find out about that.
 
Originally Posted By: earthbound
I just dump it into my nearest creek, which conveniently is only about 40yds from my back yard.

Your joking RIGHT?
 
Originally Posted By: FordBroncoVWJeta
Originally Posted By: earthbound
I just dump it into my nearest creek, which conveniently is only about 40yds from my back yard.
Better hope the EPA doesn't find out about that.


Their funding is getting cut so they probably won't.
 
Perhaps Autozones vary around the country, but when I walk in with a jug I usually just place it on the counter or some other location where they direct me to do. They ask me if I want the jug back, and when I say no they tell me to just leave it and they'll take care of it.

The only time I've had to go to the back and dump it myself was when I wanted to keep the container. To save that trouble, I just pour it up into the empty bottles.

BTW, I always prominently mark "used" on the bottles with a sharpie in a contrasting color(usually black since my mainstay oils are Mobil 1 and Valvoline VR-1, both of which are silver bottles) so that it doesn't get accidentally restocked. I also REALLY like 5 quart jugs for this, since they're less to handle.

With that said, I imagine any store is going to frown on 30 gallons at once.
 
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
With that said, I imagine any store is going to frown on 30 gallons at once.

Most are probably limited to how much they can accept from one person by state law. In California the maximum is 5 gallons per day, although it's possible to do stuff like go to different places or come back the same day and hope that it's a different employee. I've seen some dump maybe 20 gallons during a hazardous waste drop off event.

California has a rule that growers/ranchers are allowed to drop off up to 55 gallons (i.e. the size of a barrel) at specified collection facilities. Some are landfills, recycling centers, oil distributors, auto repair, gas stations, hazardous waste collection, etc.

The local self-service recycling centers may not necessarily monitor how much oil one person is disposing.
 
Up north its easy to get rid of, I put an ad on Craigslist for free used oil. I usually get 3 or 4 calls from folks with waste oil furnaces and its gone by the end of the day.
Other than that, take it 2 or 3 gallons at a time to local parts stores.
 
Originally Posted By: harryberry
Can be refined and recycled so best to bring them to auto shops or Wal-Mart.

Disposed oil goes through a lot of different processes, but the old way was to use it in a used oil burner for heat. That can still be done, but I rather worry about some of the stuff in there that's pretty nasty when burned. Actual oil is only part of it. It's a chemical cocktail of different chemicals, detergents, and plastics, along with various contaminants. If anything, I'd think fuel in used motor oil might enhance burning for heat.

These days there's a lot more of it that goes through a refining process similar to the way crude oil is refined. I guess the old methods of recycling oil for reuse were more like filtering the oil rather than going through distillation like with crude oil. I would suspect that it's not exactly the same as base lubricant from crude oil, but it's good enough for similar performance.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-oil-be-recycled/
 
Originally Posted By: OldSparks
Originally Posted By: SR5
Originally Posted By: earlyre
My Dad's Uncle filled his lawn roller with used oil instead of water... of course this was 20+ years ago...

When I was a boy, one of my jobs was to paint our grey wood picket fence with used sump oil after my uncle did an oil change. No termites in that sucker.


My dad let us spray used motor oil on the driveway to keep the dust down in the summer. He figured anything that washed off the driveway over time would help keep the skeeters and blackflies down.


You're polluting your own ground water.
 
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I used to use Walmart or Autozone. 20 quart limit per day here. I recently discovered the small airport across from my house uses waste oil for heat in their hanger. They were more than happy to have my waste oil.
 
Getting rid of brake fluid is a problem for me. Our city has a once a year free disposal of hazardous products but mention brake fluid and their eye balls cage. I think I'm working on my third gallon of used brake fluid now and no help in site. Thought of just dropping it off some night next to the fence around Walmart'w waste oil tank. Or better yet, just toss em over and hope Walmart doesn't have a DOT bomb go off near the automotive department.
 
Originally Posted By: mmavet
Originally Posted By: earthbound
I just dump it into my nearest creek, which conveniently is only about 40yds from my back yard.

Your joking RIGHT?


yes it's a joke....but since your from Iowa to I think you can see how hypocritical it is as our farmers dump all this n2 into the water. with you know "there justifiable chemicals" to make their beautiful corn and soybeans prosper.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
AAP takes it. I bring no more than 5 gallons at a time.


I do the same at Advance AP with no questions asked and dump it myself.

Walmart (at least here) wants you to sign your life away and they will dump in their own "good" time, so one may have to wait for over an hour before they get their containers back.
 
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