THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF OUR TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, with its high consumption and disposable products, are forcing us to reassess our lifestyles. Recycling was once the rule, dictated simply by necessity. We have forgotten that our parents conserved routinely, and now we are being haunted by the consequences of our profligate ways.
We’ve all taken our cars in to have the oil changed—perhaps you’ve even changed the oil yourself. But have you ever wondered what happens to that yucky black stuff that was drained out? That lubricating oil is potentially reusable, but most of it ends up dumped on the ground or in rivers and creeks. It’s a classic example of our society’s shortsightedness.
We live in a strange world of illusion. The current prices of oil are depressed because of a “glut” on the market, yet every oilperson knows oil is going to run out early in the twenty-first century. We have enormous environmental problems, yet we continue to pay no attention to the destructive effects of many of our products that end up polluting. That brings us back to used oil.
There are two kinds of lubricating oil: the stuff we use in our cars and industrial oils. Of the 200 million gallons of lubricating oil produced in Canada annually, half is used up in the lubricating process, but the other 100 million gallons are potentially recoverable. In fact, about 37 million gallons are collected, of which about 22 million gallons are re-refined and the remainder is burned or spread on roads. What about the uncollected 63 million gallons? Chances are they go into sewers or onto the ground. Without a doubt we end up drinking it in our water and eating it in our vegetables and meat. So not only do we waste a precious resource by failing to recycle all this used oil, it is also a major contaminant of the environment.
Used oil is also laced with deleterious chemicals that are removed in the re-refining process but that are liberated when the used oil is burned in low-grade furnaces or dumped. Some of those contaminants include lead, zinc, chromium, arsenic, chlorine, bromine, PCBs, polycyclic aromatics, and volatile and semivolatile organics—a rather nasty gallery of chemicals.
It costs money to re-refine oil. There has to be a system whereby it can be stored, picked up, and transported to re-refining plants. There is little incentive, especially when “virgin” oil—refined crude oil—is so cheap. Twenty years ago in the U.S., there were over two hundred re-refiners. In 1987, only three remained, and they were struggling to survive. At the same time in Canada, there were six, and they were all barely making it.
Part of the problem is psychological—North Americans believe that re-refined oil is lower quality than virgin oil. Yet a study by the National Research Council of Canada showed that re-refined oil is as good as or even better than the refined. But we are reluctant to purchase the re-refined, especially since it is more expensive.
A major part of the problem for re-refiners is political—all the tax incentives and subsidies go to the discovery and exploitation of crude oil. There are no economic incentives for the re-refiners. There should be every encouragement to conserve through recycling and to protect the environment by removing toxic contaminants and preventing the introduction of the oil into the environment. But therein lies the problem. The producer of a product—any product—usually has no obligation to anticipate its total cost, including eventual disposal, yet that should be built into the initial costing.
The best example of our myopia is the nuclear industry, which built plants long before there was any serious consideration of disposal of radioactive wastes or decommissioning aging plants. Economic or legal incentives to recycle in an environmentally responsible way are needed. Re-refining oil ought to be an apple pie issue, but the industry is on the ropes.
We have to get over the idea that we can dump liquid waste into sewers and forget about it or that we can slop it onto the ground where it will be absorbed. It is ironic that while the PCB spill near Kenora, Ontario, created a public outcry, millions of gallons of used oil—much of it containing PCBs and other toxic substances—are sprayed onto dirt roads to keep down the dust. More goes into our waters, where it is estimated that the cost is up to $8 million a year to repair corrosion and replace filtration systems. Millions of gallons of used oil are also burned in furnaces for low-grade heating of greenhouses. The burning temperature is too low to destroy PCBs, which are simply liberated into the air and often end up being absorbed by the plants growing in the greenhouses. Some used oil is actually sprayed onto pigs’ backs to keep them from getting sunburned in the summer.
Whatever we take from the ecosystem denies it to other life-forms, and whatever we put into it flows through the various cycles of air, water, and soil. For millennia, our numbers were small and our technology simple, so the environment seemed limitless and endlessly self-cleansing. Today we are too numerous and our technology is too powerful for nature to be as forgiving. Governments don’t offer enough rewards to those who conserve resources for future generations or adequately punish those who use up or damage the environment. It doesn’t make sense to recycle only if it is economically profitable: we live on a finite planet where all life is interconnected.
So the next time you empty your crankcase, think hard before dumping that stuff down the drain