What Do You Do With Your Waste Oil?

[jhonb]

I live in florida and the counties near me take it for free. But My county recycle center is about 45 minute drive and then you have to drive through the landfill. But the county next to me has a recycle center about 10 minutes from me. They started checking ID's so now I have my buddy who lives in that county drop mine off when he takes his there.

 

[Langanobob]

We have a local Nevada State Railroad Museum that takes used oil to burn in their steam locomotive. That’s where mine goes.

 

[joea99]

In NY most every auto parts store, quick lube or service station that does oil changes is required to accept it. Many have waste oil heaters and are glad to take it. Some will "look at you funny". Some County recycle centers also accept waste oil.

The solution for you may be to find the state agency that over sees that and make an "anonymous" complaint. If you know the law exists, you probably know where to complain.

Then again, if you have vehicles on the road, mixed 50/50 with used ATF it makes a great anti rust underspray, once a year. Wear a mask.

 

[Randy52]

I have a near by auto repair shop that heats with used oil. They are very glad to take it.

 

[ArthurHA]

There is a little known law in my state that says if a business sells motor or hydraulic oil, they must also accept used oil for recycling. The law is never enforced.

My tractors generate around 15 gallons of motor & hydraulic oil per year. When I bring the used stuff to the place where I bought the new oil and ask them to take it, they look at me like I had two heads. No one will accept it. Sure, I use some for lubing machinery but there is always a whole lot left over.

Years ago, when I bought my first tractor, the dealer heated his building with waste oil. He had a tank beside the building where customers could leave their used oil. He eventually had to take it out because people were dumping all sorts of crap in it. Used anti freeze was the biggest problem since it caused damage to his burner.

When I worked for the local telephone company, I made friends with the truck mechanic. He let me dump my oil in his recycle tank which was collected monthly by a recycling company.

Now that I'm retired and have several tractors, the problem is worse than ever. I'm storing my used oil in an old 275 gallon fuel oil tank but it's almost full.

Considering the cost of new oil these days, there must be a market for the used stuff. I don't generate enough to warrant spending big bucks on a waste oil heater. I'm curious what others here do with their used tractor oil??

I poured it on my fire wood pile, by the time it is in for burning, it is dryed and doing a good job as it goes up the chimney.

 

[durtynacho]

I save mine and use it to seal the wood on my trailers. It is excellent for that, and it has a nice color too. I power wash them a couple times a year and re-seal, usually once in the spring and once in late summer or early fall. I just grab an old mop and slop it on there. Keeps the wood from splitting.

You could stain a deck with it and it would look just like a reddish brown wood stain. Doesn't look bad at all.

 

[varmint]

Don't know if it's universal throughout the state, but here in Baltimore County, the recyling center has tanks for used oil, anti-freeze and such. No limits I know of. And yes, it has value for reprocessing, albeit not much. Burning it is not ideal because of heavy metal contaminants from bearing wear and combustion by products.

 

[dh206]

In PA, NJ, and MD, at least, all of the Autozones and Advanced Auto have a huge metal container in the back where you can dump waste oil. You just go in, say "where's the oil container", take it into the back corner of the store, and dump it into the huge bin. Sometimes they will tell you it's full, but that's rare. It's often a 300 gallon+ metal tank. They have a recycling service that picks it up periodically.

 

[Garson]

I don't get much used oil but use it for bar lubricating oil in a chainsaw.

 

[plumbyII]

There is a little known law in my state that says if a business sells motor or hydraulic oil, they must also accept used oil for recycling. The law is never enforced.

My tractors generate around 15 gallons of motor & hydraulic oil per year. When I bring the used stuff to the place where I bought the new oil and ask them to take it, they look at me like I had two heads. No one will accept it. Sure, I use some for lubing machinery but there is always a whole lot left over.

Years ago, when I bought my first tractor, the dealer heated his building with waste oil. He had a tank beside the building where customers could leave their used oil. He eventually had to take it out because people were dumping all sorts of crap in it. Used anti freeze was the biggest problem since it caused damage to his burner.

When I worked for the local telephone company, I made friends with the truck mechanic. He let me dump my oil in his recycle tank which was collected monthly by a recycling company.

Now that I'm retired and have several tractors, the problem is worse than ever. I'm storing my used oil in an old 275 gallon fuel oil tank but it's almost full.

Considering the cost of new oil these days, there must be a market for the used stuff. I don't generate enough to warrant spending big bucks on a waste oil heater. I'm curious what others here do with their used tractor oil??

I use it for extra chain/bar/sprocket lube on my echo 370 when doing fence row tree/brush removal. I still use regular high viscous chain lube in the oil reservoir but long cuts need extra lube. I just make a notching cut in the top of a waste oil container (used plastic oil jug) and as needed during a long cut - dip the static chain bar sprocket and all into the slot. A couple low rpm revs and the chain is fully cooled and lubed. Other than that - I suppose waste oil would make a good fuel for cold weather activity like dealing with beaver/dam problems. I am wearing a respirator anyway when slotting a dam (to prevent inhaling beaver water spray) so the smoke may not be an issue with correct filter.