Oil Storage, Disposal and Re-use

• Background
• Storage
• Pollution of Controlled Waters
• Disposal
• Re-Use
• Future Changes
• Further Information
• Local Commercial Waste Oil Services
• Domestic Oil Recycling Points

Background

All commercial & industrial waste oils are classified as Special Waste and therefore, handling, storage and processing is controlled under the Special Waste Regulations 1996. This is due to the additives used to produce specific qualities, such as rust inhibitors and detergents. In addition to this, oils often acquire contaminants during use. All these increase the hazardous nature of the waste. The handling of oil also falls under the Duty of Care regulations, and The Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) 2001.

Oil can spread very thinly over a large area, and is therefore highly damaging to the environment even in small amounts. As well as contaminating drinking water, oil can be very harmful to birds, mammals, fish and shellfish and smothers plants. Oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters, and the water-repelling abilities of a bird's feathers and ingestion of oil by animals can poison them.

Storage

New legislation on Oil Storage came into force in 2001 (The Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) 2001 ) and applies if you have custody or control of an oil storage facility for more than 200 litres of oil above ground in England (including tanks, intermediate bulk containers, oil drums and mobile bowsers).

This refers to oil of any kind, including petrol, solvents, mineral oil, heating oil, lubricating oil and vegetable oil (but NOT waste oil). The legislation does not apply to oil stored for agricultural purposes.

The Environment Agency site has advice on storage of these oils, as well as descriptions of storage containers, legislation and seminars.

Pollution of Controlled Waters

The most frequent consequence of oil spills or illegal disposal is pollution of controlled waters. The Environment Agency (EA) can bill a company for any costs incurred when cleaning up a pollution incident or spill, and the company may be fined or a prison sentence incurred.

The following advice can help prevent pollution incidents:

1. Minimise the volume of waste oil to avoid the need for consent by the EA.
2. Discharge waste oil to foul sewer (subject to effluent obligations) or dispose through a licensed waste management contractor.
3. If consent is required, ensure that you comply with the conditions of consent from the EA. The level of discharge allowed is assessed on an individual basis.
4. Do not wash substances into surface water drains or allow run-off to seep into the ground. Paint surface water drain entry points blue and foul sewers red, so that oils can be diverted from surface water points.
5. When constructing external hard surface areas, such as car parks, check the regulations for spill and surface water run-off, so that oil spills can be contained.
6. Divert clean roof water directly to surface water points without passing through oil/grit separators or oil interceptors.
7. Train all staff on how to prevent oil spills and the procedures to prevent pollution of surface and ground waters if spills do occur.
8. Provide shovels, sand, commercial spill kits and/or absorbent granules/sawdust in locations where spills or leaks of pollutants could occur and find their way into surface water drains. Ensure that spills are cleaned up immediately to prevent potential pollution.
9. Store above ground containers in an impermeable bund on an impermeable base.

(Source: Environment Agency)

Disposal

The Special Waste Regulations require that a consignment note accompanies the movement of waste oils. These are available to licensed or registered waste carriers. However, small quantities are exempt (up to 5 litres for disposal and 20 litres for recovery).

Producers of special waste are responsible for ensuring that waste is properly controlled and not illegally moved or illegally disposed of. In practice, this means that waste producers have a legal obligation to ensure that the waste they produce is transferred to an authorised person, i.e. a registered carrier or a licensed waste management company, and is treated or disposed of at a licensed facility. The licensed waste contractor collecting the oil normally deals with the requirements and can advise on the procedures.

Industrial Waste Oil

Oil source	Collection method
Industrial Oil:	Often a valuable material. Large quantities should be securely stored before collection by a registered waste carrier, who may pay for the oil and recycle it.
Vegetable Oil:	Cooking oils can be collected by specialist contractors for reprocessing. It should not be disposed of to surface water drain and approval is required to dispose in foul sewer.
Garages & Workshops:	Collection by registered waste carriers or use as fuel for space heating. Storage for fuel requires authorisation from your Local Authority.
Transformers:	These use a specialist oil. Advice can be obtained from the EA.

Domestic Waste Oil

Oil source	Collection method
Engine Oil:	Take to an oil bank for recycling. Found at civic amenity sites, garages, large car retailers. See the list below or use the Oil Bank Helpline 0800 663366 to find your nearest centre.
Vegetable Oil:	Some civic amenity sites have facilities for collection.

Re-use

50% of fuel oil is used or lost in use within a few months of purchase. Approximately 80% of the remaining fuel oil is collected and re-used as a support fuel or re-refined as a base oil. From 16 July 2002 certain types of hazardous wastes will be banned from all landfill sites, and this includes all liquid forms of hazardous waste, such as oils.

There are three routes to recycling waste oil:

Re-refining - Produces a re-refined base oil. This is a more expensive and complex process than other routes, but produces a higher quality oil. The used oils are first cleaned of their contaminants -- such as dirt, water, fuel, and additives -- through vacuum distillation and then hydrotreated to remove any remaining chemicals. Finally, the re-refined base oil is combined with a fresh additive to make the finished lubricant. Alternatively, the base oil can be mixed with other oil to produce fuel oil.

Used oil can be re-refined over and over again, and is subject to the same stringent refining, compounding, and performance standards as virgin oil. However, new high quality products require highly consistent and predictable quality, which is difficult to obtain from re-refining unless using high pressure hydrogenation.

Laundering - Involves a less severe process than re-refining. The process is used for oils of known composition. The oil is then usually returned to the supplier for re-use.

Reprocessing - A very simple process, removing water and solid contaminants collected during use to produce Reprocessed Fuel Oil (RFO). This is the most common processing option in the UK. The burning of this fuel is less environmentally damaging than virgin oil due to reduced sulphur content.

Reprocessing a used fuel can involve:

• Drying, to remove moisture;
• Filtration to remove substances such as alcohol, acids, aldehydes, ketones , N-Olefins, neutral esters, aromatics, cycloparaffins, and paraffins;
• Vacuum processes to remove particles such as dirt and metal particles.

At present RFO is used in the UK in power stations, heaters at quarries, cement & lime kilns, industrial furnaces and smaller boilers and space heaters.

RFO has become increasingly popular because it is cheaper than virgin fuel oil.

It is expected that re-refining uses will increase, such as for lubricants and metal working fluids, which can be cleaned and returned to use easily.

However, there are problems with the market, which is still relatively small. From 2006 the Waste Incineration Directive will prevent many current RFO users from burning it and this may force a drop in demand over the next few years. It may be that companies accepting RFO will be paid to take and use it.

Future Changes

Recent and future legislative changes concerning oil include the following:

Revisions to the Special Waste Regulations The DETR proposes to scrap the existing special waste definition and replace it with "hazardous waste" as defined in the Hazardous Waste Directive and Hazardous Waste List. Regular producers of hazardous waste may in the future have to register themselves with the Environment Agency.

EU Landfill Directive
The recent Landfill Directive will make it illegal to mix hazardous and non-hazardous waste at one landfill. There will be a complete ban on the disposal of certain wastes at landfills, including liquid wastes.

Derogation of Duty
The UK has derogation (partial retraction of a law) on the duty that would otherwise be collected on "waste oils which are reused as fuel, either directly after recovery or following a recycling process for waste oils". This was to provide an incentive to ship operators to discharge oily wastes in port in preference to using the waste as fuel or discharging it at sea. The European Commission has warned the UK to drop this duty derogation for recovered fuel oil (RFO) because of a requirement in the waste oils Directive for Member States to give priority to oil recycling, rather than conversion to fuel.

Waste Oil Directive (87/101/EEC)
This requires that member states give priority to the processing of waste oils by regeneration rather than conversion to fuel, wherever technical, economic and organisational constraints so allow. It states that RFO should be treated as a waste, and therefore councils will face higher bills from collectors of RFO.

Waste Incineration Directive
From 2006 the Waste Incineration Directive will prevent many current RFO users from burning it and this may force a drop in demand for the product over the next few years.

Further Information

Environment Agency: Oil Care Campaign - information on handling oil, at home and work, to prevent environmental damage. Also have a directory of recycling points for waste oil in the UK. Telephone 0800 663366

The Pollution Prevention Guidelines on the Safe Storage and Disposal of Used Oils

Envirowise, the waste minimisation organisation, have Guides on oil:

• CS092 Cost-effective treatment of waste oily water
• GS227 Managing Oils to Save Money
• GG227 Cost Effective Management of Lubricating and Hydraulic Oils

Telephone 0800 585794

Materials Recycling Handbook, produced by Materials Recycling Week. EMAP Maclaren Ltd,
ISSN 0953-2982, price £85. Comes free with subscription to the magazine.

Oil Recycling Association (ORA)
The Oil Recycling Association
62 Lower Street
Stanstead
Essex CM24 8LR
OilRecyclingAsso@aol.com

Members of the Oil Recycling Association (ORA) collect the majority of waste oil products generated in the UK. ORA members should be able to give customers advice on handling waste oil and also provide a wide range of associated services.

Commercial Waste Oil Services

Note:All organisations listed are either based in Oxfordshire, or have confirmed that their services cover Oxfordshire.

Domestic Waste Oil Recycling Points

Note: All the domestic Waste Recycling Centres (WRC) in Oxfordshire have waste oil banks. However, these sites do not accept waste oil from businesses.

Name	Area
Dean Pit WRC	OXFORD
East Oxford Tyre Service	EAST OXFORD
Alkerton WRC	ALKERTON
Redbridge WRC	OXFORD
Swan Motor Centre	COWLEY
Transport Section City Works	EAST OXFORD
Hartford Oxford	BOTLEY
Quarry Motors	HEADINGTON
Truck Workshops	WOOTTON
City Motors	NORTH OXFORD
Cross Roads Garage	ABINGDON
Motorworld	ABINGDON
Drayton WRC	DRAYTON VILLAGE
Cross Roads Garage	KINGSTIN BAGPUIZE
Dix Pit Stanton Harcourt WRC	STANTON HARCOURT VILLAGE
Rowstock Corner Garage	ROWSTOCK
M.M Bellinger & Sons	GROVE
Harwell Car Services	HARWELL
Oakley Wood WRC	WALLINGFORD
Ridgeway Garage	WANTAGE
Threeways Garage	CHILDREY
Stanford in the Vale WRC	STANFORD
Ardley Fields WRC	ARDLEY FIELDS

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