Public Works Department

Burbank Recycle Center
   

WASTE OIL AND OIL FILTER RECYCLING  

  

WHAT IS WASTE OIL?  Any oil that has been refined from crude oil and has been used is waste oil. Waste oil includes oil from cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, and lawn mowers. In California, waste oil is considered a hazardous waste.

  

WHY RECYCLE WASTE OIL?  Oil poured into the trash, down household drains, into storm drains, or directly onto the ground can work its way into and pollute groundwater, streams, rivers, and lakes. Insoluble, persistent, and slow to degrade, waste oil contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals and sticks to everything from beach sand to bird feathers.  Waste oil from a single oil change can ruin a million gallons of fresh water – a year’s supply for 50 people.  One pint of oil can produce a one-acre slick on surface water.

  

Today, almost 60% of the nation’s automobile oil is changed by consumers themselves.  According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, consumers who change their own oil generate at least 200 million gallons of waste oil and throw away 120 million gallons of recoverable oil every year.  Recycling this oil would save the United States 1.3 million barrels of oil per day and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It takes 42 gallons of crude oil, but only one gallon of used oil, to produce 2 ½ quarts of new lubricating oil.

  

Recycling waste oil preserves a valuable, non-renewable natural resource as used motor oil can be re-refined into new lubricants, burned as fuel, or re-refined and made into a high-quality motor oil for your vehicles. 

  

HOW SHOULD WASTE OIL BE RECYCLED?  Drain used motor oil from your vehicle into an oil drain pan or a clean plastic container with a tight lid.  The container should hold no more than five gallons (20 quarts). Oil pans are available weekdays at the Burbank Recycle Center at no charge by visiting the Administration Building.  The free recycled plastic oil drain pans are provided by California Integrated Waste Management Board grant funds.

  

Waste oil must be pure and uncontaminated.  Please do not mix waste oil with anything (anti-freeze, paint, gasoline, solvent, etc.).

  

Pour the used oil down the sink in the Used Oil Center at the Burbank Recycle Center.  The oil will drain into a 850-gallon underground storage tank.

  

If you are not using an oil drain pan, place the emptied container on the tank so that remaining oil in the container will drain into the tank.

     

As with other hazardous wastes, improper disposal of used oil (into sewers, storm drains, trash bins, etc.) is illegal.

  

Call 1-800-CLEANLA for a list of other waste oil centers by zip code.  There are seven state-certified used oil center in Burbank, of which the Recycle Center is one.  

   

Waste oil can also be taken to Household Hazardous Waste Roundups and the SAFE collection centers.  

  

The Recycle Center's Used Oil Center also accepts anti-freeze.  

  

CASH FOR WASTE OIL.  State law entitles you to receive 16 cents per gallon (four cents per quart) for waste oil.  For reimbursement, speak to an attendant before emptying waste oil containers. 

 

The Used Oil Center at the Recycle Center is closed on Saturdays, since there is no City employee on duty on Saturday to monitor the materials left there.  However, the Burbank Recycle Center is open for other business on Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

 

  OIL FILTERS

 

WHY RECYCLE OIL FILTERS?  More than 14 million oil filters are sold in California each year to people who change their own oil, and almost 90% of the filters end up in landfills.  In the United States, 360 million oil filters go to waste each year.

  

Recycling used oil filters means that every last drop of the filter's steel, paper, oil, and plastic can have a new useful life.  Recycling filters also means that we can protect our waterways from some pollution.  Each filter, when drained, contains about a pound of steel and between two and eight ounces of oil.  An undrained oil filter can contain a full quart of used oil.

  

CALIFORNIA'S OIL FILTER PROGRAM.  To encourage do-it-yourselfers to recycle used oil filters, the California Waste Management Board has designed a used oil filter recycling program that provides grant money for cities to recycle oil filters along with their used oil program.

  

HOW TO RECYCLE OIL FILTERS.  Follow these simple steps to recycle oil filters at the Recycle Center's Used Oil Center:

  • Drain and collect used motor oil in an oil drain pan or other appropriate container.  Free oil drain pans are available in the Administration Building at the Burbank Recycle Center, Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm.

  • Replace the old filter with a new one.

  • Place the used oil filter in a leak-proof container like a coffee can with a lid or resealable plastic bag if you do not have one of the Center's oil drain pans with a place for filters.

  • Bring the filter to the Burbank Recycle Center’s Used Oil Center and place the drained oil filter in the drum labeled "Used Oil Filters."

  • Undrained filters may be placed in the oil sink at the Used Oil Center.  After they are drained, an attendant will place them in the "Used Oil Filter" drum.

WHAT HAPPENS TO RECYCLED OIL FILTERS?  When recycled oil filters are dismantled, every last part of the filter is put to good use.

  • The steel filter base is recycled as heavy, clean scrap and sold to a local scrap yard.

  • The outside canister is shredded and sold to a purchaser of light, clean steel scrap.

  • The paper filter is pressed free of oil, stored, transported, and used as a co-generative fuel for generating electric power.

  • The seals and O-rings are sold to a plastics recycler.

  • The used oil from the entire process is drained into a central tank, transferred to a large double-walled tank, collected by a certified oil collection service, and processed into heavy lubricants or bunker fuel.

The Burbank Recycle Center is a State-certified oil recycling center and has been recycling waste oil since 1983.  State-certified centers may not charge a fee to accept used oil and must offer four cents per quart for the return of used oil.  Contact the Burbank Recycle Center at (818) 238-3900 for further information.

   

Note: By law, you may not dispose of or recycle more than 20 gallons of oil in one trip.  The oil must be in containers of 5 gallons or less.  
  
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