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Antifreeze? What’s the decent way of disposing of it?

Well I still haven’t found a place to dump the last batch of antifreeze I drained out, now I have another four gallons to get rid of. I ask this question about every year or so and still haven’t found an answer I’m happy hearing, maybe this time????
So where do you all get rid of yours?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

You can take it to any lube shop or repair shop that does fluid services. They are required by the EPA to accept used fluids, such as oil and antifreeze.

Call your county health department or environmental department and ask them where to take household hazardous waste. Lube shops (and some auto parts stores) might accept used oil but they generally don't have an antifreeze tank, at least here in California.

Im with Bill on that one, I take mine to my brothers auto repair shop and put it in his tank,a dude stops monthly (free of charge) and collects it for recycling.
That is how it is in Central PA anyway not sure on other places round the country.
Tim

Mr. Graham,

O'Reilly Auto Parts is prominent in your area according to my search. Their website says they take automotive fluids, I wonder if this includes antifreeze. If you're in the country, why couldn't you pour the antifreeze into a barrel with sawdust in it. Wait a few months and burn the sawdust.

The green folks will tell you that this is a no no, but who listens to them....

Stuart

Just pour it down a storm drain.



NO, just kidding. Take it somewhere and dispose of it properly.

Feed it to the stray cats.

Me Mr. Miller, I want to leave it to my kid in better shape than I inhearited it. Besides I got a college grad this year that has a job at the university and is working on developing green seminars, that's the only color I see around her when she's home.

I taint that fur into the country, and the city is moving in VERY fast. Just got our fifth stop light on Rt34, none when I moved here 25 years ago, and we even have to have turning lanes now with all the subdivisions popping up.
I'll have to ask at some of the flaps and oil change places, I've got a friend that says he takes his oil up there and dumps it into there tank.
Watch it Gizzmo, picking on cats is not the politically correct thing to do, I'm a big cat lover you know! I even looked for ladies that had those cat like eyes to date in my younger days of course, a half centurey ago.
Thanks guys,
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

When I emptied my radiator I had the antifreeze in a bucket for almost a month. I needed the bucket so I dumped it into a flower pot overgrown with weeds, and what do ya know, three days later, no weeds! haha, Anyway, don't spill any outside. My dad and I had to empty his van's radiator, and the thing was so low the ground we couldn't get a bucket under it. The antifreeze fell to the driveway and we left it there. There were stray cats in our neighborhood, but I haven't seen them since. Sorry Denny...

Taking it to a lube shop or a auto parts place sounds like the best idea.

On the subject of fluid disposal, whats the best way to get rid of used lacquer thinner? After using my paint gun for painting parts on my truck, I clean it with some lacquer thinner and for now have been draining it back into another can. Not sure of the best way to get rid of it.

Denny, In Wisconsin, any retailer selling oil or anti-freeze is required to take the used stuff back. Not sure about you Flatlanders.

Weeds

I am in Texas and anti freeze is very hard to get rid of legally. We use extended life coolant in our over the road trucks. We have a recycling machine that sucks it out of the system, filters it and pumps it back into the truck. This is not a routine maintenance. We only do this when we have to remove the radiator or tear into the engine. We change water filters on the trucks every time we change oil and we never have anti freeze to dispose of. Whatever you do, don't mix it with used motor oil. Recyclers will reject the whole tank of oil. I use extended life coolant in my old jalopies also, and I just never change it.

Drummin, about the laquer thinner- Because there is usually not much of it from cleaning out a paint gun, I pour it on weeds in the driveway. And I've also put it in my used oil jugs.

I always set fire to all my used volatile organic compounds. Seems a little more environmentally friendly than letting them evaporate.

.... around my areas we have collection centers, or recycling places all over the county. They have a tank, inside a shed, where folks can bring and dump their motor oil. If I have only a small amount of antifreeze I just pour it in my 10 gal used oil jug with the used oil.
If you ask anyone I'll bet you that you will end up PAYING someone to take it....thats the way it works. Don't ask....

When the old oil is distilled recycled or "cooked" they have ways of dealing with the "burn off" gases ect... but don't ask!!!!

The solvents I use to clean paint guns and brushes I put into a container and alow it to settle, then after a month or so I decant off the clear liquid and reuse it. Amazing how many times you can use these solvents for cleaning.
Looks like most of you have places to take it, I’m gonna start asking around this week.
Hey Ken, what do you mean by water filters?? I’ve been using PEAK for years, probably as good as any of the ethylene glycol antifreeze’s and like you I only change it if I have to service the cooling system, I’d filter it and reuse it if I knew how.
DG

Again, call your local environmental agency and ask them where to take household toxics. It will probably end up being fuel blended and sent to a cement kiln for supplemental fuel. At least in many parts of the country that's what happens.

Any repair shop that changes antifreeze is required to have a proper waste tank for disposal. They are also required by the EPA to take in any waste antifreeze that is brought in. Same goes for other automotive waste fluids. Most of the shops around my area (including the one I work at) uses Safety-Kleen for their recycling needs, and will have a tank for disposal. Refusal to take used fluids at no charge is an EPA voilation.

I hear ya Bill, not ignoring ya, I'll check on it this week.
Thanks,
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Seems we have some pretty progressive ways of disposing of hazardous waste, even way out here in Idaho. Seems like most municipalities etc., that have landfills also have hazardous waste collection places and schedules posted. Disposing through suppliers is clearly another way, but just dumping it anywhere or burning it will catch up with us. Would be big fines out this way if caught, not to speak of the environmental damage. I paint a lot and get rid of all my unused materials via hazmat collection, easy to do - little effort - and the right thing to do. Dale

Denny, here is a link to the water filters we have been using on our Cummins engines for the last 30 years or so. Before that we used Perry filters which was mainly as cathodic protection and not so much to filter the coolant. http://www.cumminsfiltration.com/html/en/products/cooling/water_filtration/water_filtration.html

Man this week has sure been a learning experience for me. That's the first time I've ever heard of water filtration systems used on and IC engines. From what I'm reading it's pretty standard with the diesel engines. There’s a GMC dealer over in the next big town that is listed as one of their distributors for the water filters.
I'll tell ya what's going through my head right now. I’m sure that a commercial filtering system would be way out of line for the average Joe at home but a guy could throw a homemade set up together for a few bucks. A 5-gallon bucket tank, a cheap pond pump and some clear plastic hose, a remote oil filter housing and one of those Cummings WP2077 filter cartridges. Whenever there is a need to drain my system just run it through the filter for an hour or so and reuse it then tuck everything into the bucket pop the lid on and hide it in the attic till next time.
Do that sound like it would work???
DG

All Cummins engines designed for over the road have the filter heads built right on them. The spin on filters come with DCA additive or without. For a gasoline engine engine you would want a filter without DCA. We use the filters without because we use extended life coolant. We have a recycler that I bought when CF was auctioned off for a song. It probably cost a fortune new. You could build something like what you are describing, but why not just put a remote filter in line with your heater. That way you are constantly filtering your coolant and never have to drain it. Our recyler is basically a glorified holding tank to drain coolant into when we have to work on something. It beats the old fashioned way of draining it into a wash tub.

Originality, Ken, originality. I’m tryin’ to keep the truck looking correct. I was just thinking that there might be a practicle way of recycling the fluid instead of just dumping it. This batch and the one I drained out last time only had a few thousand miles on them but there was however, a little discoloration, not much but a little. Of course at $14 or $15 for a couple of gallons of antifreeze, what's the point, I might as well just dump it and freshen it up.

By the way, I did stop today at a couple of local NAPA and Auto Zone stores and they don't take fluids for recycling, but they do sell oil and antifreeze. I'll keep on askin' around though, bound to find someone who has heard of the EPA’s mandate.
DG

At my father's shop, it simply goes down the drain unless their is oil in it. The city uses some sort of bacteria that digests the ethylene glycol. It's perfectly o.k. by the E.P.A

A google search for "antifreeze disposal Illinois" turned up 28,100 options. I didn't read them all but I found none that condone putting chemicals in drains or dumping it on the ground. I did find several recyclers in the Chicago area that service commercial customers. It shouldn't be difficult to find one that would take small batches from individuals. I also found that the state EPA sponsors cleanup with hazardous waste disposal. Cities need to apply for it. If Sandwich doesn't participate maybe you should go to a city council meeting and ask why.


I did find that there is no US EPA regulations for the disposal. But that fact shouldn't prompt any social minded person to just dump it.

City of Madison, Wisconsin says to pour it down the drain.

Our city encourages it. It kills certain bacterias and is easily filtered from the water. DON'T pour it into a septic, just city sewer,
Scott

My father didn't believe it either, but a call to the public works changed his opinion. Ethylene glycol and propolyne glyol(Sierra anti-freeze) are corn sugar by products from fermentation. Why wouldn't bacteria break it down? We used to give propolyne glycol to sick cows!

What about the lead and other dissolved metals that are in it from being run in an engine? Nevermind the Ph level has to be 12.4 or higher to be considered a non-hazardous material. The EPA told us not to dump it down the drain. Collect and recycle.
While ethylene glycol and propolyne glycol are hte base stocks, there's also a full range of other ingredients that make it harmfull to the environment if dumped. Even the label on bottle states that it's harmfull.
We collect and recycle at the shop I work at.

Read the first couple of pages Cletis and went to their links, mostly just rules and applications but there was one that might help. Taint got time now to read thru 21,000 suggestions, maybe after lunch! As I said before, none of the towns around here have collections, the county has a one-day Saturday morning collection once a year and that’s about it. I went once and sat in line for an hour and they shut it down saying the tanks were full, come back next year. I did see where Naperville, about 30 miles from here has a collection every Saturday but I looked into that a few years ago and was told that it was for Naperville residents only. I’ll continue asking at stores if they take waste but so far haven’t found on that does.
The whole point here is that the EPA and local governing bodies make it darn hard for you to be environmentally responsible. And although I wont do it, I can certainly understand why we have a problem with land and water pollution because a lot of this stuff is simply disposed of the easiest way, that being hidden in boxes and thrown in the trash or poured out behind the garage or barn or in the drive way. And I see that the county still spray waste oil on the gravel roads to keep the dust down!
And I'm about as burned out on this subject as I am with finding a spot to get rid of my "hasardus waste", at least for now.
DG

not trying to hijack your thread.... a while back I had a similar question on hazardous fuel. most cities have a process if the local lube or FLAP do not help with your specific hazmat issue.

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...;Main=60584&Number=439168#Post439168

Hope this helps.
Brad