1963 used engine oil disposal article - photo

[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?