where to dispose of antifreeze or brakefluid?

[tdimaniac]

quote:

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Originally posted by sgt_barks:
Ok guys this I know something about.

Your water treatment facility IS NOT equiped to seperate these things out of the water. So how many ppm of brake fluid would you like with your icewater? Antifreeze too. Never put anything other than organic substances or mild degerants down the sanitary sewer. Did you know bacon grease can mess it up?

You can take those fluids to any oil change place and most auto parts store and dispose of them. Keep your fuels, oils, and antifreeze seperate. Don't mix different types of fuel. When you mix them it ruins their ability to be recycled. You can mix all oils together to include brake fluid, ATF, motor oil, gear oil, etc. It is not ideal to mix dexcool and regular green stuff for recycling purposes. But it can be done.

I am an Environmental Compliance Officer. This stuff is all I deal with. The military and Fort Hood in particular have many systems to avoid contaminating the ground water.

By the way. These fluids will severly mess up the ground water if let into the storm sewer. if you must change antifreeze in your drive way, take care not to let it into the storm sewer. When cleaning up, use absorbant or wash it into the yard. Your yard has a filtering effect that will minimize the impact on the greound water. If dilluted enough with a water hose it won't kill your grass either. Try absorbant first though.

Ok I'm done, wake up

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sorry sarge i know a bit about this as well, with a masters degree in environmental engineering. brake fluid and antifreeze are primarily glycol based blends, which degrade (they are not "separated") in a biological treatment process, which most wastewater plants in the united states have. you can flush a little at a time and it will not cause a problem:

automotive fluids disposal

don't mix brake fluid (at least dot-3/dot-4) with oil unless you want a mess on your hands.

 

[tdimaniac]

updated link for above fyi:

http://www.kewauneeco.org/LEPC/wasteoil.htm

 

[wavinwayne]

I flush my used anti-freeze down the toilet.

I burn used brake fluid whenever I have a big pile of stuff to burn.

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

I dump all waste oil and P/S, brake, and gear lubes into a 5 gallon bucket. When it's full, I take it to Jiffy Lube, they let me dump it into the bins they drain cars into. I drop old coolants, batteries and oil filters off to a service station down the street, usually at night

. Oil bottles and such, I recycle. I assume the service station has recycle capabilities for batteries. In any case, it's better than dumping them on the side of the road.

In the future, however, I shall be taking the Dremel to my oil filters, see what's under their fingernails, so to speak!

 

[Master ACiD]

i re use old motor oils, atf etc by adding them, a quart at a time, to my fuel tank, to be burned in my engine as a fuel.

oil filters get a nail to the closed end which makes a hole. they are allowed to drain for a few days before opening them up for inspection. after inspection, the metal is thrown away. the filter media is saved to use as a outdoor fire starting aid.

old brake fluid gets sprayed along the fence line as a weed killer. with anti freeze i normally just dump it out in the yard and spray the area for a few minutes with water.

 

[MNgopher]

tdimaniac is correct on the antifreeze for sure, not sure about the brake fluid. Glycol does break down in the wastewater treatment process and is not simply diluted. Always check with your local authority first before dumping into the sanitary (NOT STORM!)system. Our system is OK with antifreeze, but not brake fluid.

 

[SHOZ]

Brake fluid is a glycol, similar to an alcohol. I'm not tell you what I do with it or the antifreeze. But I have this problem with coyotes where I live......

I do dump my old batteries out in the gravel though.

 

[Cycle Freak]

I was told by Advance Auto to dilute anti-freeze 1 gal to 5 gallons water and put it on lawn or grass and it is ok when diluted this way for the environment.

 

[oilyriser]

It's 50% alcohol. Someone should figure out a way to burn the stuff as a fuel. I know the pure stuff does burn quite well.