DIY Oil Changes
If you are one of the many people who change their own motor oil, you too need to know how to properly manage the used oil. After all, used oil from one oil change can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water — a year's supply for 50 people! When handling used oil, be sure to take these key points into consideration:
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• Used motor oil is insoluble, persistent, and can
contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
• It’s slow to degrade.
• It sticks to everything from beach sand to bird feathers.
• It’s a major source of oil contamination of waterways
and can result in pollution of drinking water sources.
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Recycling your used motor oil reduces this pollution threat. Luckily, Solano County works with many programs for residents to easily recycle used oil and used oil filters
Save Wildlife
Oil on a bird's feathers impairs waterproofing and exposes the animal's sensitive skin to extremes in temperature
What happens to the oil?
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Once oil has been used, it can be collected, recycled, and used over and over again. An estimated 380 million gallons of used oil are recycled each year. Recycled used oil can sometimes be used again for the same job or can take on a completely different task. For example, used motor oil can be re-refined and sold at the store as motor oil or processed for furnace fuel oil.
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Re-refining used oil takes only about one-third the energy of refining crude oil to lubricant quality.
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The re-refining process involves treating used oil to remove impurities so that it can be used as a base stock for new lubricating oil. Re-refining prolongs the life of the oil resource indefinitely. This form of recycling is the preferred option because it closes the recycling loop by reusing the oil to make the same product that it was when it started out, and therefore uses less energy and less virgin oil.
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Re-refined oil—must meet the same stringent refining, compounding, and performance standards as virgin oil for use in automotive, heavy-duty diesel, and other internal combustion engines, and hydraulic fluids and gear oils. Extensive laboratory testing and field studies conclude that re-refined oil is equivalent to virgin oil—it passes all prescribed tests and, in some situations, even outperforms virgin oil.