The purpose of recycling used oil is to restore its chemical composition so that it can be re-used to produce new lubricant products over and over again. Because of its indefinite lifecycle, substantial benefits from recycling used oil are achieved with respect to environmental impact, energy and resource conservation.
Protects Human Health and the Environment
• Recycling promotes proper collection of used motor oil and keeps it from contaminating soil out of rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater and away from the beach, aquatic life and wildlife. The potential harm that improperly disposed used oil may cause is staggering.
• Use of re-refined base oils also minimizes both energy and greenhouse gas emissions. Safety-Kleen, a Chicago producer of re-refined base oils, estimates that every 1000 million gallons of re-refined lubricant base oil is the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars off the road.
• A peer-reviewed study conducted by the California EPA and University of California, Berkeley compared the life-cycle environmental impacts of combusting used oil versus recycling used oils to produce base oils. This study was initiated as no comparable past studies could be found in the US and because other studies had not fully assessed the impacts on human health or the environment. The results showed that heavy metal emissions from uncontrolled combustion of used oil fuels could be hundreds of times higher than the comparable recycling process. Used lube oil is the largest hazardous waste stream in California.
• By re-refining motor oil, less used motor oil will be used as a boiler fuel, resulting in cleaner air. Currently, more than half of all used motor oil is recycled into fuel oil cutter stock, where it is blended with off-specification or heavy crude based materials and burned as fuel, resulting in air pollution from phosphates, sulfur and heavy metals.
Saves Valuable Energy
• Compared to crude oil refining to produce virgin lubricants, producing lubricants from used motor oil requires 80% less energy and conserves valuable crude oil, a non-renewable resource.
• Re-refining requires only one-third the energy used in obtaining the virgin oil from the crude stock. Moreover, it takes just one gallon of used oil, compared with 42 gallons of crude oil, to produce the same 2.5 quarts of lubricating oil. As such, it is an excellent way to conserve virgin, non-renewable petroleum resources without compromising quality or increasing spending.
Reduces Our Dependency on Foreign Oil
• Re-refined motor oil conserves the crude oil supply by reusing the base hydrocarbons rather than having to extract additional crude oil from diminishing domestic supplies or importing additional crude oil from foreign countries.
• Oil is the No. 1 source of energy of the US supplying about 40% of the nation's overall energy needs, according to the API.
• Domestic collection and recycling of used oils supports local economies.