I've searched the forum and I know the answer varies greatly county to county and state to state.
My local garbage service also picks up our household recyclable mateial. They're willing to pick up 1 gallon jug of used motor oil and 2 oil filters each week. Lucky the drivers I have are nice enough to replace with an empty jug everytime I put out a full one. I left out a full jug of Mopar ATF and they didn't take it. I suspect it was the label on the bottle.
The county does have household cleanups scheduled every few months. They have a drop off station where the workers wear hazard suits and full face masks and take used paint and other chemicals as though it was radioactive. My dad did drop off a nasty fungicide once, so I understand the safety protocols. But I suspect these stations treat everything they take as hazardous waste since the lot was filled with black 55 gallon drums. I doubt, but not sure, they attempt to visually identify the fluids nor make any attempt to recycle automotive fluids.
I much rather mix in used ATF, brake fluid, and power steering fluid in with used motor oil so the recyclers take it. I was going to try this at Kragen's, but they pour the fluid out and give back the empty container, where as the garbage service takes the whole bottle. Kragen's suggested taking "other" automotive fluids to the county clean up.
Am I wrecking whole batches of used motor oil by doing this? I'm looking for the most enviro friendly way of getting rid of these fluids. I doubt the county hazard collections are making any attempt to recycle them, and nobody else will take these fluids.
Any industry insiders know what the impact of "other" fluids are to motor oil recyclers. I do NOT mix coolant/anti-freeze in as I know that stuff doesn't mix with anything.
Thanks!
My local garbage service also picks up our household recyclable mateial. They're willing to pick up 1 gallon jug of used motor oil and 2 oil filters each week. Lucky the drivers I have are nice enough to replace with an empty jug everytime I put out a full one. I left out a full jug of Mopar ATF and they didn't take it. I suspect it was the label on the bottle.
The county does have household cleanups scheduled every few months. They have a drop off station where the workers wear hazard suits and full face masks and take used paint and other chemicals as though it was radioactive. My dad did drop off a nasty fungicide once, so I understand the safety protocols. But I suspect these stations treat everything they take as hazardous waste since the lot was filled with black 55 gallon drums. I doubt, but not sure, they attempt to visually identify the fluids nor make any attempt to recycle automotive fluids.
I much rather mix in used ATF, brake fluid, and power steering fluid in with used motor oil so the recyclers take it. I was going to try this at Kragen's, but they pour the fluid out and give back the empty container, where as the garbage service takes the whole bottle. Kragen's suggested taking "other" automotive fluids to the county clean up.
Am I wrecking whole batches of used motor oil by doing this? I'm looking for the most enviro friendly way of getting rid of these fluids. I doubt the county hazard collections are making any attempt to recycle them, and nobody else will take these fluids.
Any industry insiders know what the impact of "other" fluids are to motor oil recyclers. I do NOT mix coolant/anti-freeze in as I know that stuff doesn't mix with anything.
Thanks!