Getting rid of used brake fluid?

As for taking oil back, in IL at least there is a law that all oil change places must accept used oil for free. I think that should be a federal law myself. For coolant it looks like quite a difference of opinion there. Does anyone know if the EPA have anything to say about it?

Here:
http://www.epa.gov/msw/antifree.htm


Ken

 

The used oil is reclaimed and re-refined.......easier than drilling a well!

 

With all the regs in place in California we pay and pay a pretty good price to get rid of oil, more for antifreeze.

I am also licensed by the state to be a waste generator. Every manifest that is generated with my # on it becomes my responsibility FOREVER.

In California a quart of oil, an oil filter, a can of paint is just what the label says it is until the package is opened, then it becomes a toxic substance. If those rules are not in place in your state, read up on them, they are coming.

 

Birdman,

Save it in a jug and give it to me next time we meet. Will gladly properly dispose of it at my next track event.

 

Evans coolant has a product you can add to eytheleneglycol to make it non-toxic.



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Ethylene Glycol Poisonings Can Be Stopped!


A Disclosure of the EVANS DE-TOX™ Process for the Detoxification of Ethylene Glycol

Evans Cooling Systems, Inc. (ECS) is pleased to provide the following disclosure of its discovery of a practical alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme inhibitor that is effective in detoxifying ethylene glycol (EG). US and Foreign Patents Pending.


This technology was disclosed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in communications dated Sept. 17, 2001. A general news release and full public disclosure followed on Oct. 8, 2001.

The information herein was revised Feb. 13, 2002 upon a finding that
the oral rat LD50 value for ethylene glycol is 8,300, not 4,700 mg/kg.

Abstract

It is estimated that approximately 4,500 humans are poisoned and 90,000 domestic animals plus countless wild animals die annually in the USA by ethylene glycol (EG) from products such as antifreeze. Ingested EG is not itself toxic until it becomes metabolized by the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme to glycoaldehyde and then metabolized further to other toxic metabolites. The inventors of the Evans De-Tox™ process have discovered that a practical and inexpensive substance, namely propylene glycol (PG), when mixed with EG, acts as an ADH enzyme inhibitor, preventing the metabolism of EG and preventing the toxic metabolites that are the essence of EG poisoning. The effectiveness of the method has been proven in a series of laboratory tests using Sprague-Dawley rats according to GLP test procedures in a facility certified by the EPA. The LD50 value of EG is 8,300 mg/kg. Mixtures of 50% EG/50% PG (by wt.) and 70% EG/30% PG (by wt.) are demonstrated to be so low in toxicity that LD50 values for them cannot be determined. The LD50 value for a mixture that is 95% EG/5% PG (by wt.) was experimentally found to be approximately 15,000 mg/kg, a figure that indicates a very low toxicity and that compares to the toxic LD50 value of 8,550 that would be predicted by using a standard industry formula. Poisonings by ingestion of products containing EG are preventable by simply including a modest percentage of PG in the mixture. This fact should be the subject of an EPA mandate.


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Revision required

Evans Cooling Systems, Inc. was informed by letter dated February 7, 2002, from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), that the LD50 value for EG of 4,700 mg/kg, a value that has been published for years in numerous MSDS documents and published elsewhere by respected sources, including the NIOSH Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) is incorrect. Soon after the October 2001 disclosure by ECS of its DeTox™ technology, the ACC undertook the re-translation of the Russian language publication, written in the early 1980's, that has been the supposed source of the 4,700 mg/kg figure. Two significant errors were found in the original translation. First, the 4 and the 7 were transposed. The figure was 7,400, not 4,700. Compounding the first error was that the study results in ml/kg somehow became mg/kg in the literature. As the specific gravity for EG is about 1.120, the correct LD50 value for EG is 8,300 mg/kg. ECS is indebted to the ACC for taking the initiative to correct the LD50 information and bring it to ECS' attention.

The basic thesis of the original disclosure remains. Tests that were performed, however, using rats at dosages less than 8,300 mg/kg are recognized as irrelevant and have been removed from the revised disclosure. Projections from tests performed using rats at dosages less than 8,300 mg/kg are also removed. Based on the higher LD50 value for rats against which ECS compares its experimental results, ECS' current thinking is that EG poisoning can be prevented if a quantity of propylene glycol (PG) equal to about 11 percent of the weight of the EG is mixed with the EG. Previously, ECS had thought that about 5 percent would suffice.



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This page is part of a framed web site. Click the button to load the site from the intended starting point.
Copyright © 2005 Evans Cooling Systems, Inc. Page last revised 08/15/2005

 

That EPA link above has a tab that references your state hazmat web page. MA's is not as helpful as VA's -- VA's has a list of places that take used oil and antifreeze.

As far as I can tell, MA's recommendation is to mix used brake fluid and trans fluid with your waste oil, and burn it in your space heater (after filing a form, of course).

 

Interesting. I understand many garages heat using EPA approved waste oil burners. My understanding is these units will effectively burn brake fluid as well. As far as coolant, I doubt these units can burn anti-freeze.

 

Oil companies do not buy used oil, and used oil is rarely re-refined. Refiners do not like used oil, it is problematic to refine and can poison the very expensive catalysts used to refine crude oil into gasoline (and other products). At least in the Midwest US used oil is sold to licensed waste haulers and resold as burner fuel.

Also, there is not a law in Illinois that requires a service company to take used oil from non-customers. However, that being said, many places will take the used oil in small quantities because it is resold. That was not the case 5 years ago; we had to pay for used oil disposal.

Mixing gasoline, solvents, or antifreeze in with the used oil is not a good thing. The company we buy our antifreeze from also picks-up our used antifreeze.

 

Gerry,

Would you mind giving me the name and contact info for that company? My waste oil hauler is very reluctant about anti-freeze removal.

Wil

 

Our guy is local to Metro Chicago. The service is both ways, delivery of new/recycled coolant and pick-up of used. Happy to PM you the info if you still want.

Gerry

 

Thread resurrection!

I have a bunch of used brake fluid from one Dino and two 2002s.

Any new ideas about what to do with it since the comments above from 2006?

Really conflicting advice on every forum. Mix with used oil. Put on kitty litter and dispose in trash. Mix with left over ATF? What's best?


Thanks!

 

I drop it off at the same place the oil goes.

 

Our oil recycler takes motor oil with old anti freeze or brake fluid mixed in.

 

Believe it or not, here in upstate South Carolina the trash disposal stations we have around the county have an area for used oil, antifreeze and battery disposal. They also have a bin for used tires and one for scrap metal. I think they have a container for brake fluid too, but it has been a while since I have disposed of any. By the way, all of our household trash gets shipped to Georgia. Maybe waste disposal is an area where we are not 49th (only ahead of Mississippi), like everything else! I am going to dispose of some used auto transmission fluid this afternoon (it gets mixed in with the motor oil).

 

"p-h-o-n-e b-o-o-k" (spelling the 2 words, slowly, letter by letter, confused), hey Al, whats that?

 

Same here- My local AZ store takes the brake fluid in the oil drum as well. They say it gets all mixed up to make tar for streets and stuff........

 

ATF is just 10 weight oil with a red dye as far as I know. We've been dumping ATF and brake fluid in with the waste oil for years without complaints. What you don't want to mix in (and what they're supposed to check for) are chlorinated solvents like old fashioned brake-clean.

 

Here in NJ, any gas station that services cars has to accept used oil. For a fee. That fee seems to be undefined.

My county has hazardous waste day every couple months. THey take my antifreeze & brake fluid, though it may be that they simply dont know they shouldn't. And I dont know what they do with it.