If you work in the automotive industry as a mechanic or you work in the food industry as a restaurant owner, you may find that you accumulate plenty of used oil requiring disposal. Storing it in bottles or tanks is not feasible in the long term because it may consume a lot of space. Pouring it out in a drain or on the ground is also not an option because it leads to pollution of the environment and blocked drains (you should never pour oil in a drain). Where then can you dispose of used oil?

Oil Recycling Companies

Contact an oil recycling company and ensure you inform them of the kind of oil you have. It can either be motor or cooking oil. The company should be in a position to inform you what to do next, but here's what you can expect:

You might be asked about the quantity of used oil your business produces in a day to try and estimate the capacity of used oil disposal tank you need.

In most cases, the tank is provided by the oil recycling company for free because it benefits from selling recycled oil. The company then sets a pick-up schedule where it collects the used oil-filled tank and replaces it with another clean tank to be collected when full. This shows you that the company often caters for collection, tank cleaning, oil disposal and oil recycling. All you have to do is dump your used oil in the tank and wait for collection.

Some companies might, however, charge for the collection services or require you to purchase the waste oil disposal tanks. Others may even buy waste oil from you.

This shows you that when looking for a waste oil recycling company, you should consider whether you want to make money out of disposing of waste oil or whether you just want to get rid of it with or without pay.

Home Motor Oil

If you have pieces of equipment that utilise oil in your home, you might need a place to dispose of it. Contact automotive workshops near you; they might accept waste oil. You may, however, have to take it to them.

What Happens to Waste Oil?

Waste oil recycling companies usually process/refine it to form fuel used by various pieces of equipment like blast furnaces or space heaters. It can also be refined to produce marine oil or diesel. Selling refined waste oil as fuel brings profit to waste oil recycling companies and that is why some companies can offer free waste oil collection services.