Quick question for those of you (all of you) who change their own oil. Do you recycle the quart bottles or throw them in with the regular trash?
I was once told that I shouldn't recycled the empty quarts because of the oil residue left behind after pouring most of the oil into the engine. But they are marked with the triangle on the bottom.
I've always put them in the recycling. What you say makes sense, though...I may drive them out to the local hazmat area and let the professionals decide what to do with them. 
I used to take mine to the town barn for their waste oil furnace, but the tree-hugging so & so's got the k-bosh put on that (new EPA regulations ?) so now I just try to get it to somebody that can run it in the shop system...
This is my first post as a DORK !! , kinda getting all tingly...
Edit: Not many of my bottles end up going anywhere, the 5 qt jugs get drained beyond any trace left & then they get filled with gravel + sand to be used as anchors for the minute up canopies our car club owns
(sometimes Lowes has open bags of gravel for about a $1 or so... ) 
I toss the bottles in with the regular plastic recycling. My rational is that plastic is made from petroleum, what's a little more going to hurt?
Oh, man..I haven't even really thougt about it. I just feel lucky that the local Autozone accepts waste oil in the first place (we're kinda on the edge of Atl metro here). I've just been throwing the bottles into the trash. Never considered that they could be recycled as well.
I just throw them in the trash. I do take the oil to be recycled. interesting side note, autozone told me they dump oil, tranny fluid, and diff fluid all in the same container for recycling. So make sure and recycle all of it gentlemen.
Oil burner FTW
friedgreencorrado wrote: Oh, man..I haven't even really thougt about it. I just feel lucky that the local Autozone accepts waste oil in the first place (we're kinda on the edge of Atl metro here). I've just been throwing the bottles into the trash. Never considered that they could be recycled as well.
Everything in an oil change is recyclable. Even the filters get recycled into construction rebar.
But would you use it in your car?
Jury is still out with me.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/with-nextgen-oil-valvoline-hopes-drivers-heed-the-green-call/
I find it odd that the same person at city council who wants to save the planet by outlawing home oil changes is wanting to approve a couple of thousand tons of asphalt.
Bruce
huge-O-chavez wrote: But would you use it in your car? Jury is still out with me. http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/with-nextgen-oil-valvoline-hopes-drivers-heed-the-green-call/
They had my interest right up to the point where they said the product would sell at or above the price of virgin oil and consumers could pay the premium to be green. They can shove it up their butts.
But to answer the OP's question, I also toss the empty bottles in the trash. The instructions for the recycling program say that the cans and bottles should be clean and free of food residue. I figured oil residue was worse, but on second thought, what's it gonna hurt? I'd like a definitive answer on this burning issue! 
1988RedT2 wrote:huge-O-chavez wrote: But would you use it in your car? Jury is still out with me. http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/with-nextgen-oil-valvoline-hopes-drivers-heed-the-green-call/They had my interest right up to the point where they said the product would sell at or above the price of virgin oil and consumers could pay the premium to be green. They can shove it up their butts.
Agree. I assume they are thinking that eventually oil prices will go up and their prices will remain constant-ish.
Our transfer station, formerly know as "The Dump", will not let me recycle the bottles. I am forced to toss them in with the trash.
Seems like an opportunity for a subset of the recycling industry.
After reviewing and helping set procedure for EPA regs for several of my company's area shops the general consensus was that to avoid the possibility of fines: Recycle the oil, filters, used pig mats, but empty bottle can go in the trash.
If its good enough for a corporation to avoid a $20K fine per store, it should be good enough for the backyard mechanics.
Um, my local Napa accepts the used oil from me back in the bottles they came out of. Drain oil into pan. Fill engine. Put old oil into recently emptied bottles. Drive to Napa and it all disappears. I have no idea what the Napatians (Napaleonos?) do with the bottles.
The instructions my city sends out for recycling specifically says they don't take oil bottles. I would suggest checking with your local community, they probably have the rules on their website.
I normally just have the one bottle for filling, 5qt jug, and when my oil change drain pan is full, I just goto the local AAP and put it in their tank. Filters goto the trash, same with left over bottles. No recycling efforts for those out here in BFE.
I put the bottles in the recycling, let them figure out if it is recyclable or not. Much of the plastic bottles are cleaned then milled and reprocessed. I guess there is a company who can reuse the recycled plastic to make fleece vests, etc.
Here in Cali if a store sells motor oil they MUST accept used oil. They might not want to though. It is easier for me to just go to the transfer station, they take motor oil/filter, antifreeze, latex paint, etc without any guff. One store here will take a sniffer to your motor oil to make sure you haven't dumped solvent into it. One time I returned a particularly nasty batch of oil and they didn't want it as the sniffer detected solvents.
You guys are funny.
The empty oil bottles get cut up with a box cutter to make into a funnel then kicked under the car that doesn't run. When you realize you have no place to put the old oil (because you hacked up 4 bottles before you got a decent cut to go evenly around the entire perimeter of the can) you run inside and chug the 3/4 gallon of milk in the fridge (or really take 2 sips then pour the rest down the drain). The old oil goes in the empty milk jug and sits in your trunk so you can return it to the store later. It will fall on its side and the cap will pop off spilling most of the oil in your trunk as added rust proofing.
However, my dad always said " the oil came out of the ground, how is it pollution if I'm putting it back."
It only take 1oz of oil to contaminate 1 million gallons of fresh water.
daytonaer wrote: However, my dad always said " the oil came out of the ground, how is it pollution if I'm putting it back."
Because it came from 6 miles below the ground, got pumped up, cracked, refined, colored, was supplemented with phosphorus, sulphur, calcium, and zinc, then run in your car for 5000 miles where it picked up all kinds of acids and particulates.
I know that was you dad talking, not you, but that kinda stuff makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. 
curtis73 wrote: I know that was you dad talking, not you, but that kinda stuff makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
He never poured oil in the ground.. on purpose. Just picking on people.
I'm lucky that we can put out full bottles of used oil out on the curb with our recycling and the city takes care of both. I assume they recycle the bottles too...
There's no recycling in my town. None whatsoever.
I don't think there is any within 100 miles of here. 
I do recycle the old oil, Delaware takes the oil and the spent filters too at their recycling facilities. I actually saved two quarts to dump in my girlfriends corolla because I knew it would be low. It took both quarts to get it back on the hash marks.
However, when I worked at autozone the oil was recycled (collected by an outside vendor) and the bottles it was returned in went in the dumpster. Along with all the boxes for new product that could've been recycled.
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