Where does the old oil go?The United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. generates approximately 1 billion gallons of used automotive, hydraulic, and cutting oils each year, 75% of which is resold untreated as a cheap industrial fuel. This practice leads to significant emissions of toxic metals toxic metal Environment Any metal known to be toxic to humans–eg, antimony, arsenic, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel. Cf Nontoxic metal. including lead and cadmium cadmium (kăd`mēəm) [from cadmia, Lat. for calamine, with which cadmium is found associated], metallic chemical element; symbol Cd; at. no. 48; at. wt. 112.41; m.p. 321°C;; b.p. 765°C;; sp. gr. 8. , according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a 15 January 2004 report in Environmental Science & Technology. The report compared three ways of dealing with used oil: re-refining it, distilling it, and burning it untreated. The authors found the toxicity potential of using the untreated oil was 150 times greater for terrestrial ecosystems and 5 times greater for humans. Development of better oil filters for cars and less frequent oil changes can greatly reduce the volume of used oil. |
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