Identification

• Oils tend to collect impurities such as dirt, metal and water over time that reduces their effectiveness. When an oil no longer effectively performs its job, it becomes waste oil.
  
  

Types

• You can use waste oil for two major purposes: as a fuel or refining it for reuse. Most oil waste often just needs filtering to remove contaminants.
  
  

Significance

• Waste oils are sometimes more effective than virgin oils. The Environmental Protection Agency reports it takes 42 times less waste oil than crude oil to produce 2 1/2 quarts of motor oil. An average household can operate for entire day on 2 gallons of waste oil.
  
  

Benefits

• Using waste oil reduces the amount of virgin sources of oil that we must find. In addition, reused oil means less waste oil in the municipal waste stream that might cause environmental contamination.
  
  

Fun Fact

• People who produce their biodiesel often seek out waste oil from restaurants because it is usually given out free and easily refined into a cleaner, biodegradable diesel gas that any diesel engine can use. Spent grease and plant oils could provide 1.7 billion barrels of gasoline each year, according to the Department of Energy.