Jim Muller wrote:
> One of the Valvoline quick-oil-change shops here in town does this
> too. Ever since they told me about it I've wondered what it dumps
> into the air. I would think that used oil (or even fresh oil) has
> heavy metals and other stuff besides fully-combustible hydrocarbons.
> Of course, when you combust it in your engine you are also dumping it
> into the air, but you generally combust only a fraction of the oil
> you put into your car, and any sludge (heaven forbid!) generally gets
> drained off at the next oil change. Plus, you burn your quart or so
> spread over a large area instead of all immediately upwind of your
> neighbors. I don't mean to be judgemental of M.H. here, just
> curious. Is this one of those things the flies under the
> environmental (and EPA) radar because it is so uncommon? Is it
> really believed to be not a problem?
On occasion, I take my used oil to Jiffy Lube as they are a designated drop
off center in my area. The manager at this Jiffy Lube said that all of his
used oil gets picked up weekly by a company that specifically reprocesses
the used oil to be used as heating oil. What this entails, other than
removing impurities and solids, I have no idea...
I would imagine that the waste oil reprocessing company ends up diluting the
old waste oil with virgin heating oil so that in the grand scheme of things
the waste oil becomes rather insignificant when burned.
Kai
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