1963 used engine oil disposal article - photo

[trigger]

In Tanzania they mixed oil slop into the bunkering diesel for ships after showing you a clean sample they inject the slop,disposal problem gone.Consumer problems then commence with no recourse as they give a clean
sealed sample as evidence.If taking on 50000 lt not something you pick up .

[Skun Knuckles]

Fence post paint.

[toeless joe]

I know several guys who use it to heat their shops.

[FEM2008]

According to the Florida Water and Pollution Control Operators Association, "...just one quart of oil can contaminate up to 250,000 gallons of drinking water or cause an oil slick almost 2 acres in size. Backyard mechanics dump over 40 times more used oil into the environment each year than the Exxon Valdez spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound (11 million gallons)."

Years ago, I visited a castle that was built before the crusades. It has a functioning water cistern. It was eye opening to see the care people took back then to keep the cistern and surrounding area clean from contamination. They understood that oil and tar should be kept away from ground water over a thousand years ago. It boggle my mind that people thought that was okay to do what the article described only a few decades ago.

[nova_robotics]

Any ideas on how to repurpose used oil?

Run it through a paper filter. Works great for heating your shop.

[hemmjo]

Any ideas on how to repurpose used oil?

I installed a waste oil fired boiler, with radiant floor heat distribution, for an excavating contractor. His shop generates hundreds of gallons of used oil each year. He also collects used oil from many other business contacted he has. The burner will handle anything from #2 diesel to heavy gear lube. Burns clean with no smoke or smell. It does create enough ask to require cleaning the combustion chamber and heat exchanger every 1000 hours. The burner has disposed of coming up on 7000 gallons of far. The EPA tried to shutdown waste oil burning a few years ago, but it has proven to be less polluting that the re-refining process. https://www.energylogic.com/waste-oil-boilers/el-375b/

As far as recycling, oil does not wear out, it just gets contaminated with byproducts of combustion and the additives get depleted. So it is easy to re-refine into good oil again. Transportation costs to the few refineries that exist make it not cost effective in many parts of the country. Companies that transport the oil charge shops to pick it up, then charge the refinery for delivery. We used to have a re-refiner here in central Ohio, but they kept blowing blowing themselves up and having large spills. They finally went out of business due to fines and costs of rebuilding. https://www.dispatch.com/article/201...NEWS/306039907

Pouring it into the ground is a bad idea. Letting it soak into the ground keeps the air and microbes away and it will eventually contaminate ground water. Left exposed to air, like a spill on the surface, it will biodegrade over time. They used to spray it on country roads to hold down dust.

It is crazy some of the things we used to do to get rid of things we no longer want. How many remember bathroom wall cabinet with the razor blade disposal slot in the back?

[Hoosiersmoker]

I knew a Missionary / mechanic, Steve Keim, in Mexico that had a Dodge Ram diesel. He had over 600,000 miles on it. He collected abandoned cars from the roads (no need for titles there). He also worked on the local people's cars as a ministry. When he changed their oil, he kept all of it. He filtered it, mixed it with kerosene, which was much more plentiful and cheaper than gas or diesel fuel, and burned it in that truck. For many many years he made many trips to the US with that truck bringing crafts and goods from the region he lived in and sold them then hauled supplies and money back to Querétaro. I was told about 12 or 13 years ago he was on his way back to Querétaro and fell asleep somewhere in the mountains and went over the edge. He showed me a church building he built in a nearby village. He built a scaffold on top of an old van he rescued and used it to weld the entire structure. He told me it was cheaper to buy steel than wood and he had a welder / generator so he just used that. There were sections of the building where he used car frame sections and scrap he had collected from all over the area. In many ways, he was a hero. RIP Steve!

[TrickieDickie]

I do my grandpa had one in his bathroom cabinet......I miss my grandpa

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

How many remember bathroom wall cabinet with the razor blade disposal slot in the back?

In college my dorm room had a wall cabinet over the sink with the slot. It was also back to back with the adjacent room. When I heard the adjacent room run their water (meaning someone was at the sink) I would take a bent coat hanger and hit the inside of the door, and often times it would smack them in the head. I'm sure they thought their room was haunted.

[mbshop]

Worst idea ever. Polluted water showing up everywhere.