On Tuesday, December 16, 2003, at 12:21 AM, Chris & Kelly Sharp wrote:
> OK, I drained the sump on my new-to-me TR8 and found it was a nasty
> mixture
> of old oil, sludge, and really old fuel. Add to that a little solvent
> I
> used to clean the pan and you've got a mixture only a chemist could
> love.
> The guy at the parts store said he can't take it if it's got anything
> other
> than "motor oil" in it. (I tried the old gasoline-came-from-oil
> routine, to
> no avail.) So, what methods can you recommend for disposing of this
> ecological nightmare? Simple and cheap are prefered, as long as it
> doesn't
> incure any jail time. Enquiring minds want to know....
Here's two methods:
1. My local landfill has a periodic "hazardous waste disposal day" when
you can bring
them anything for disposal. They sort it out and dispose of it
appropriately. I usually have
old cans of paint, a few jugs of fluid as you describe above, and other
nasty things.
2. Here's a less ideal method but one I used when I lived in a very
rural area with no
landfill - in fact, it's a method both my dad and granddad used on the
farm to dispose
of awful stuff. Fill a metal 5-gallon bucket with sand. Pour the nasty
stuff into the sand.
Light it up with a match. If the nasty stuff is not flammable, add some
kerosene to help
it along. The sand acts as a wick, burning slowly without a flash or
explosion. Yes, this
is not a great thing ecologically - you are essentially trading air
pollution for ground water
pollution since it usually gives off a cloud of black smoke. In my case
it was the lesser
of two evils. YMMV and all that.
Ken Strayhorn
'72 MKIV
Hillsborough NC
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