How do you dispose of used oil?

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How does everyone deal with their used oil?

Our sanitation company picks it up from the curb once a month as long as it's in a clear plastic container.
 
My most frequently visited Autozone takes it no questions asked. Actually, they do like to make sure that what you're giving them isn't mostly gasoline, for obvious reasons, but beyond that, no problem.
 
Same thing, the local auto parts store take it. I like to drop it off as soon as I do the oil change so no chance of it spilling or leaking at some point while in storage. It's state law so it's easy.
 
Autozone or Advance, dump it in their recycle in the back of the store.

As an aside...I mix those two stores up more than any other retail. Blindfold me and put me inside one and I couldn't tell you which of the two I'm in...If I couldn't read it may be tough from the outside as well, similar color schemes, etc. I can distinguish their oil prices from everywhere else however (std every day price), they seem to be about 1.5 to 2 times higher than say Wal-mart.
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There are a variety of ways around here. For my convenience I just collect over a period of time and every year (or sometimes even two) I'll drop off the oil at a city (don't live there) recycling center that will usually have a 55 gallon drum to accept oil. They have employees there, so as soon as one drum is full they'll seal it and then switch the collection funnel to an empty one. They used to have a single, large tank, but that had issues once it was full. A lot of people drove a long way to get to this place and weren't leaving with that oil. So they would try to close it off but had oil absorbent tossed all around it when an employee couldn't cap it before it overflowed.

Besides that, a lot of the counties around here have government-operated hazardous waste collection centers. They take a lot of the stuff that's hard to legally dispose, but they also take used oil. Also will take the oily paper towels I've collected.

Is suppose many take advantage of stores that are designated as oil collection centers. I've seen the signs at some of these places, and they'll often have another sign saying not to leave used oil in front after hours.

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Originally Posted by 1JZ_E46
How does everyone deal with their used oil?

Our sanitation company picks it up from the curb once a month as long as it's in a clear plastic container.


Tide soap containers - then taken to auto-part stores for recycle. I keep the containers for re-use. They hold at least six quarts.
 
About every fall I gather up 4 or 5 of my WW2 'jerry' 5 gallon gas cans that I use for the drain oils and take them to a local small indy shop and into his storage tank where he burns it in his waste oil furnace.
 
Take mine to friend with a waste oil heater. Or I bring it to work and dump it into one of our 2 400 gallon waste oil tanks
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Originally Posted by ekpolk
My most frequently visited Autozone takes it no questions asked. Actually, they do like to make sure that what you're giving them isn't mostly gasoline, for obvious reasons, but beyond that, no problem.

This ^^^^^^^^^^

I change the oil on all three of my vehicles at the same time. So I have a big 5 gallon plastic jug that gets pretty full by the time I am done. (18 quarts total for all 3 vehicles). After I'm finished I take it to my local Auto Zone, and dump it into their big tank in the back. I don't like keeping used oil in my garage for any length of time for fear of any leaks.
 
Our local transfer station has a huge tank for waste oil.
They have been questioning me very aggressively the last year or so about whether the oil is contaminated with anything else...I would guess somebody must have caused a problem by dumping a whole bunch of coolant or something worse in there.
Time before last, the attendant asked me to just leave the oil in my containers in front of the tank and said somebody else would dump it out...I would guess that somebody asked if they could put aside some oil for him to burn in a shop furnace or something like that. The guys at the transfer station will generally be nice to you if you know them and take the time to say hello and ask how they're doing, I played softball with a guy who worked there for a while and he'd never let me pay for dropping tires off or anything else that they'd normally charge for.
Or, maybe some klutz made a huge mess and the attendants decided to pour the oil themselves for a while...
 
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