Used motor oil discard

[Chrisatlantic]

We stayed in St Augustine this spring where I changed my oil… turned out the town marina accepts used oil and used filters with self serve containers adjacent to the building with showers and laundry.

Whatever it costs the town is a better deal for everyone than the alternative of having people potentially dump oil or throw oil-filled filters in the trash.

[Tin Tin]

When we leave the US for the pristine Exumas, Bahamas we carry an empty oil jug. When we take new oil (Way cheaper to buy Rotella from Walmart) for the change which will fill those now empty jugs and keep in the engine room, only need to do once per 6m season. When we return to USA the boatyard we go back to takes motor oil for recycling. (Calvert/Washburns Solomon Is)
This takes oil bought in the USA back to the USA rather than dump on a poor country that does not have the economy or facilities to deal with oil from its own population let alone transients from wealthy nations.

[GordMay]

Just 4 quarts of oil, drained in a typical oil change, can contaminate 1 million gallons of water, when poured down storm/sewage drains, or into waterways.

There are many practical uses for used motor oil.
A primary use is to re-refine it, into a base stock for lubricating oil. Re-refining prolongs the life of the oil resource indefinitely, making this method the gold standard for oil recycling, if it’s available, to you.

Re-refined oil is dewatered, distilled, and hydro-treated, to remove contaminants. The resulting product is virtually identical to virgin oil stock, and must meet the same American Petroleum Institute (API) standards.
Recycling oil is cheaper than refining oil from crude. It takes 42 gallons of crude oil, but only 1 gallon of used motor oil, to produce the same 2.5 quarts of lubricating oil.

A secondary use of the used oil is to burn it, for energy.
This is, probably, the least preferred method of recycling oil. Once the oil is burned, there's no way to recycle it again.

Oil Re-Refining ➥ https://www.safety-kleen.com/service...il-re-refining

[sailorbobdeb]

When we were in Spanish Wells, Bahamas, someone there happily took it for his chainsaws and other power equipment. It was only a couple gallons but he was excited to have it.

[cymeyer]

Try a local gas station. They recycle if they do oil changes v

[midnightlace]

Lots of garages and small industrial places have waste oil furnaces, they welcome free fuel. Oil, diesel, and even transmission fluid are ok, no antifreeze.

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by team karst

After our try to recycle 2 gal of oil at NAPA Freeport (fail), we just tried NAPA Georgetown. Vacant stares at counter. Finally, a customer in line says he spreads it around his house foundation to control termites. [emoji30]
A lot of this countries power is generated by diesel. Is there a good reason some mix of oil into fuel is not feasible?

Here in NJ, all oil change facilities MUST take the used oil. Minimal fee of a couple bucks is charged, but the place I go to for auto changes, does not charge me. My town also has a used oil recycle center.
Dumping any oil onto the ground in many areas is illegal and anyone would know it eventually creeps into other areas, including ground water. Good luck ever selling that property

[rupertfb]

Walmart generally takes used oil....if your town doesnt have one nearby

[Todd727]

Originally Posted by GordMay

It takes 42 gallons of crude oil, but only 1 gallon of used motor oil, to produce the same 2.5 quarts of lubricating oil.


Oil Re-Refining ➥ https://www.safety-kleen.com/service...il-re-refining

Well, they are using marketing to produce a very misleading statement. The other 165.5 quarts from the original 42 gallons are used to produce diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, and many other products. That statement could lead people to believe their process is more efficient than it actually is.

[gulfislandfred]

Our recycling centre on Gabriola Island collects used motor oil. It gets collected, filtered and 'rerefined' One of the few things that is relatively easy to turn back into a useful product.

[RichUSA]

Originally Posted by team karst

After our try to recycle 2 gal of oil at NAPA Freeport (fail), we just tried NAPA Georgetown. Vacant stares at counter. Finally, a customer in line says he spreads it around his house foundation to control termites. [emoji30]
A lot of this countries power is generated by diesel. Is there a good reason some mix of oil into fuel is not feasible?

Autozone and Advance auto will take your used oil.

[team karst]

Originally Posted by cymeyer

Try a local gas station. They recycle if they do oil changes v

Well shoot. Thats the problem right there. I’m-not local. [emoji41]. Dealing with small island goings-on

[Kiss4aFrog]

Originally Posted by Fuss

Oh dear… i hope i don’t get into trouble… well it came originally out of the ground didn’t it!!

Yes the crude oil did come out of the ground and if you're on a well for your water so will that used oil sooner or later (come back out of the ground in your drinking water). There are a number of farmers tales on what to do with used oil from spraying it on your dirt driveway to control dust to spraying along fence lines to kill weeds and grass. By now I'm sure they are all illegal if not just totally irresponsible. If you're city, town, ... takes water out of the ground that's where that oil is eventually headed.

Most auto parts stores like Auto Zone, O'Reilly even Walmart if they have an auto center take oil. I'm surprised about NAPA as I thought there had been a law passed a few decades ago that they had to accept used oil.

NAPA's web site even says they take used oil. Might want to contact the stores manager or even district manager if you get the run around again.

https://knowhow.napaonline.com/used-...and-recycling/

There isn't much money in it last I knew but the oil companies pay the parts stores for that used oil so there is an incentive for them to take your oil.

[sinnerman]

I bring mine to O'Reillys Auto Parts.

They accept it.

They have a big rectangular tank in the bank to dump it in. No issues.

If you cannot find a source. put it into smaller containers. Package it up in a box for a computer printer or some other expensive looking item and leave it on your front door step or in your unlocked car. Someone will steal it.

Cheers

[Tillikum]

Originally Posted by Lepke

I have a centrifuge and oil can be cleaned. Before the centrifuge I added used oil to the diesel day tank after filtering.
I have my oil tested at least once a year before I centrifuge. My Detroit mains burn a small amount of oil so make up oil seems to keep the additives fresh. After being thru the centrifuge the oil tests like new. I can control how fast the oil passes thru the centrifuge. The slower the flow, the better the cleaning. Centrifuging also removes water, so no acid in the oil. Oil comes out transparent.....

Ta-da! New motor oil is filtered to about 4 microns. Oil cleaned centrifugally or with a bypass toilet paper filter will be to about 1 micron. Full flow oil filters flow so well because their pores are about 12-15 microns. Most carbon "soot" is smaller and goes right through full flow filters. About 80% of engine wear is caused by these smaller particulates.

Oil doesn't "wear out" it becomes dirty. You can replace it with clean oil, or you can can clean the oil you have.

Billions of dollars of revenue depend on you NOT cleaning your oil, which slightly complicates the issue!

Centrifugal filters require the engine oil pump to have enough capacity to drive the centrifuge while still maintaining oil pressure throughout the engine. Alternatively, as on all large commercial vessels, the centrifuge is separately driven.

Some "interested parties" in the industry have made sure small centrifugal filters suitable for the average 5-6 litre sump are either no longer available or have a "replaceable rotor" which strangely costs about the same as an oil change.

You'd think the greenie-weenies would be all over this, but like Thermal Depolymerization the goal is most definitely not to find solutions to problems that can be exploited politically.

You can buy smaller units out of a certain Asian country, but those I bought out of curiosity had peculiar design defects apparently due to engineer-cultural hubris triumphing over the "copy everything exactly" MO.

There is no better option for smaller engines than the Oil Refiner by John Frantz. The design has been improved over the original Frantz filter which has parallel sides. The original model was based on the widespread availability of dense TP rolls, not the fluffed-out, air-filled rolls that are typical today. The new model compresses the toilet paper roll via the tapered end of the housing, ensuring a good flow through the paper, rather than the oil "channelling" between the looser sheets.

There has never been any more effective filter than the TP filter, but like the centrifugal filter, no one in the industry wants to lose revenues by fitting them stock, or even selling as an after-market option. Skipper Yee who promoted the Frantz filter in the 1950s and 60s sold them through independent reps via a sort of MLM because the auto parts chains wouldn't carry the filters. Toyota fitted a centrifugal oil filter on their diesel Landcruisers for a year or two in the 80s, before they were probably told to lay off.

For a marine application one of the best aspects of the TP filter is the approx. six ounces of water each TP roll will remove and hold.

So, you can run your engine with progressively dirtier oil until it's changed, or you can keep the oil clean all the time. There are numerous reports going back generations of engines found to be almost without mechanical wear at what would be the usual rebuild point or "end of life", due to having been kept clean all the time. On a small diesel the TP filter will never get ahead of the carbon production of the engine, especially not with an EGR in operation, but the difference is obvious when examining or testing the oil, and small diesels, especially if not run hard under load are prone to coking and sticking of piston rings, resulting loss of compression and glazing of the cylinder bores.

So, keep the engine clean or periodically replace the oil and engine. We can see which choice is better for business.