Excellent Ideas for Waste Oil Collection: A Guide on Best Practices
Waste oil can be harmful to the environment if it is mishandled. That's because it usually has many contaminants, calling for proper disposal to prevent hazardous impacts on the environment. However, waste oil management is not always straightforward. It requires a series of activities to ensure appropriate waste oil collection, which generally entails proper handling, storage and disposal of many types of waste oils, particularly those classified as 'special' or hazardous waste. This piece breaks down some of the best practices for waste oil collection.
Understand Legal Requirements
Several regulations exist regarding waste oil management because of its potential impact on the environment. Therefore, it's imperative to know and understand all the legal requirements needed to avoid hefty penalties and fines or lawsuits that may come with failing to adhere to the requirements. Usually, these legal requirements dictate your production, storage, collection, transportation and receiving of waste oil for disposal, recovery or recycling as a consignee. Therefore, check with your environmental regulator to ensure you meet all the legal requirements in place.
Understand The Waste Oil You Have
Waste oils come from different types of oil. And generally, no one way suits all waste oils regarding handling, storage and disposal. Therefore, it's essential to understand the type of waste oil you deal with and the correct way to do it. For instance, burning is one of the safest and cost-effective ways to handle waste oil, especially if you consider recycling. However, burning all waste oils may not be safe or practical. In addition, when burning waste oil, you may need to do it differently based on the type of waste oil you have. Therefore, understanding the kind of waste oil you are dealing with is the first step to getting it right.
Know The Equipment You're Using
Knowing the equipment you intend to use, particularly when you're thinking of burning your waste oil, is crucial. That's because some waste oil heaters or burners are designed for different purposes. While most burners or heaters will work well on a wide range of oils, some are only effective on specific oil types. Therefore, you should find out how the equipment you intend to use works before investing in one. Also, ensure all the equipment you choose are approved or certified by appropriate bodies.
Store Properly
Storage is an essential element of waste oil collection. It's imperative to use the proper containers for storage. The containers should also be closed or sealed tightly to prevent leaks. In addition, it would be best to exercise caution when transferring your waste oil into the storage containers to avoid spills. Proper labelling is also a vital part of your waste oil storage best practices because it makes it easy to identify different waste oils.