Motor Oil Trivia

One quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of water.

Approximately 60% of Americans change their own oil. Due to the lack of convenient collection facilities, these do-it-yourselfers simply dump the used motor oil into the environment. Over 200 million gallons of oil, or the equivalent of 5 oil tankers the size of the Exxon Valdez spilling their entire load, is tossed in the garbage or poured down the storm drains and sewers every year.

One gallon of reprocessed oil can generate enough energy to meet the electricity needs of your home for half a day.

Just one properly drained oil filter holds about 1/2 cup of motor oil. This is enough oil to pollute 31,250 gallons of water.

Over 500 million oil filters have to be disposed of each year.

The plastic used in one toner cartridge contains about a half quart of oil.

The world's largest waste oil processing plant is located in East Chicago Indiana. The facility is used to recycle 75 million gallons per year of crankcase and industrial oil and 20 million gallons per year of oily wastewater.

Out of a barrel of crude oil you can get 2.5 quarts of virgin motor oil, while it takes only a gallon of used motor oil to get the same amount of high quality motor oil.

You can take used motor oil to 3RC The EnviroStation to be recycled. Their hours of operation are Tuesday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to Noon.