IT'S A MARKETING SCHEME.
There are two different processes to recycle motor oil and re-use it as motor oil: one is to actually re-use the oil, where it is filtered and cleaned and re-used. Bad idea, it sux.
the other is re-refined oil and is every bit as good as any other oil available, providing they use the same quality of additives.
There is a plant in So Cal that has been doing this for years, as much as 10,000 gallons a year
It is more expensive to re-refine oil than to refine virgin oil in large quantities.
A tiny batch type process has to sit idle for a while, until they have gone out and collected enough oil to run a batch. then they fire up the heaters and stripping columns and fractionators and they boil the oil and seperate it by distillation and only keep the fraction that fits into the desired range. That makes perfectly clean and quality oil.
They might get a 50% conversion after they strip out all the nasties.
then they have to add new viscocity index modifiers they took out earlier.
Then they have to add the other additives to get the lubricating and detergent performance they are looking for.
Then the finished product is sold to K-mart or pep-boys under a generic label.
The only reason they can afford to do that is the are getting the oil basically for free and that offsets most of the collection costs, and because the gubmint pays them to do it.
But it reality it can't be done economically on a large scale, certainly not enough to make a difference unless some greenie-fools are willing to pay 5 times as much for this stuff as they would for regular oil.
it just costs too much to collect it on a large scale when compared to a pipeline or rail car delivery.
but hey, people pay big bucks for royal purple or lucas oil products so barnum was right.
I'd be interested in seeing what percentage of that "green" valvoline oil is actually recycled. I bet it aint over 50%. Otherwise it'd just cost too much in big runs.
If anyone out there really wants to do something good for the environment,
STOP CHANGING YOUR OIL SO FREQUENTLY!
STOP CHANGING YOUR OIL FILTER AT EVERY OIL CHANGE!
The people who make oil are the ones that came up with that 3000 miles crap. It's a scam, especially on modern clean running cars.
Take it to 7500 miles and change your filter every other time and you'll do more for the environment that using this green recycled oil.