a multiple choice oil pollution question

[RWebb]

The quantity of oil dumped down sewers each year by car owners in the U. S. is ...

[looneybin]

funny you post this today.
I changed my oil on sunday & missed the catch bucket & spilled about 2 quarts of dirty oil on my driveway.
I was able to get most of it up, but there was still some residue i couldn't get, even after both simple green & cola
It made a nice sheen in the gutter

[looneybin]

BTW my neighbors made the "exxon valdez" comments as i was mopping up the spill

[dhoward]

My theory is that by pumping oil out of the ground, we remove the valuable lubricant required by the tectonic plates that allows them to slide past each other smoothly, and effortlessly. Pouring used oil back on the ground allows it to slowly penetrate, back to where it belongs, doing the job that god intended it to. (IE=Intellgent Engineering).
I'm doing my part to avert natural disasters and save mankind.

[fingpilot]

Another 'funny you should ask' polls. For the first time ever, the NAPA place I took my used oil to has set a 5-gallon limit to recycle. Per month. And they won't take the containers (usually windshield wash gallon bottles) back.

My Stepvan with the 3.9 turbodiesel has a 7 gallon change with the filter. Add in two 10K gensets, power washer, log splitter, '80SC with the big cooler, 944, Prius, Toyota truck, and 454 motorhome, all done in the same month.

I was all over town spreading it between places that still take oil back. I thought the rule was you sell a certain quantity of oil, you have to take it back to be 'recycled/disposed of'.....

[RWebb]

huh - well, those are local rules

around here, they do curbside pickup of used oil at every house

try calling your municipal or county land fill/ garbage people

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by dhoward

M... Pouring used oil back on the ground allows it to slowly penetrate, back to where it belongs, ...

I hope that was a joke.

Pouring used motor oil on the ground is illegal everywhere that I know of. And for good reasons.

Fresh motor oil is not too bad (do not use on salads tho). But used motor oil is full of toxic metals - which will never break down. It is also full of combustion by-products -- long chain and cyclic organic molecules, many of which are very toxic. They can persist for many years, perhaps decades.

Dumping it on the ground puts it into the groundwater and pollutes lakes, streams and rivers once it works it's way there. While it is in the ground water, it pollutes drinking water supplies in wells.

Spilling crude oil - even a heavy crude - is not as bad per pound as spilling used motor oil.

[Rot 911]

But the dirt will filter out all the bad stuff and just allow the good oil to seep back down to where it came from.

[mattdavis11]

The water table around here is way down there, so I'm not at all worried about it causing problems. Just dig a good sized hole and send it back home.

[rammstein]

Oil helps trees to get fatty acids they need to convert harmful CO2 into healthy oxygen.

[Zeke]

Randy, re oil in the sewer, bad idea. But, have you considered the amount of grease, fat and products that contain liquid petroleum that is flushed down our waste systems? I thought the sewer treatment plants did fairly well with this.

Wassup?

I'm sure the answer is twice as much. It's a pretty damn big place.

BTW where do I find the hole that leads to the right tectonic plates? (Of course he was joking)

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by Kurt V

But the dirt will filter out all the bad stuff and just allow the good oil to seep back down to where it came from.

See.
Kurt knows.
So does Mo_Gearhead I'm sure.

Only you can prevent earthquakes.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I just chuck mine into the grease trap behind the local Burger King.

[pwd72s]

I save all my used motor oil, so I can help reduce the dust on logging roads near the McKenzie River here in Oregon.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I just chuck mine into the grease trap behind the local Burger King.

That'll work...environmentalist whackos can convert it into diesel fuel, right?

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by milt

Randy, re oil in the sewer, bad idea. But, have you considered the amount of grease, fat and products that contain liquid petroleum that is flushed down our waste systems? I thought the sewer treatment plants did fairly well with this.

Wassup?

I'm sure the answer is twice as much. It's a pretty damn big place.

...

That will go to a POTW - i.e. a sewage plant. I doubt they like it very much, as the bacteria there like to run on pure $h*t. The plant engineers are always trying to convince people not to use the garbage disposal to keep food out of their $h*t.

And... that grease is less harmful than motor oil for the reasons stated above. It used to be food right?

Of course, there are better things to do with that grease -- a lot of places here save it and sell it to the bio-diesel fuel-maker folks around here.


It's sad that Paulie has political problems with using it as a fuel source.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I thought it helped keep the drain pipes lubed up and free from clogs.