API PUBL 1835 : 1997

Description / Abstract:

API PUBL 1835, 1997 Edition, November 1997 - Study of Used Motor Oil Recycling in Eleven Selected Countries

Executive Summary: The study described in this report obtained information about used motor oil collection and recycling programs in eleven selected countries around the world. As the number of motor vehicles, including not only passenger automobiles but also trucks, construction equipment, buses, and other public conveyances increases, countries face a growing need to find ways to collect and reuse the lubricating oil that these vehicles use. In the United States, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has sponsored a range of programs to promote the environmentally protective management and recycling of used motor oil. API and its members have served as a resource for the development of used motor oil recycling programs in other countries, and have a long-term interest in how other countries address used motor oil. API and its Used Oil Working Group therefore sponsored a review of a range of programs, from the most highly developed to the most preliminary, as a means of understanding how a variety of countries are addressing the issue.

The eleven countries examined are, in alphabetical order, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, and Trinidad and Tobago. They span a wide range of geographic locations, as well as different economic and political systems. As the study indicates, they have, in particular, many different approaches to used motor oil recycling.

Although a broad range of source materials were examined in the course of the research, in the end much of the most useful information came from person-to-person contacts between API's researchers and key persons in the countries of interest. Literature searches, collections of international legislative materials, and the Internet were used to collect background information, and in some cases (e.g., Germany and France) the Internet, in particular, proved to be a very valuable source of information. The embassies in the United States of the eleven countries, and U.S. embassies abroad, in some cases provided the names of key contacts. Ultimately, a written protocol of questions was sent to one or more contacts in each of the eleven countries. Telephone contacts led to additional sources. Extensive followup telephone interviews were necessary to collect the desired information.

In several countries, little or no data were available on some of the core questions. In particular, information is frequently difficult to obtain on do-it-yourself motor oil changers, especially their numbers and the amounts of used motor oil that they generate. Statistics also do not always distinguish clearly between used motor oil and other categories of used oil. Frequently, too, the definition of what it means to "recycle" used motor oil is imprecise; burning such oil, even burning before impurities have been removed, sometimes is considered recycling.

Recognize that a more structured program about used motor oil is needed. About half of the countries surveyed, including Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, and Trinidad and Tobago, have embarked on efforts to learn more about the issue and design programs to address it. Brazil, France, Germany, South Africa, and Sweden, in contrast, seem to have effectively functioning programs at the present time, although the structures of those programs are very different. Brazil has a nationally mandated program that apparently is implemented, and may vary significantly, on the local level. France and Germany have relatively centralized and prescriptive programs, mandated by national law. Sweden, in contrast, uses a decentralized and non-prescriptive approach. In South Africa, manufacturers of motor oil subsidize the used motor oil collection and recycling program.

Relatively few of the eleven countries have enacted national legislation pertaining expressly to used motor oil. Several have defined used motor oil as a hazardous waste. Such a definition, however, does not always carry with it a high level of attention to enforcement of prohibitions on dumping or other prohibited forms of disposal.

As the report details, only a few countries of the eleven surveyed are currently recycling a high proportion of the used motor oil generated annually. In some cases, in fact, unused recycling capacity is available. In summary, the picture conveyed is one of high potential for increased used motor oil recycling in many of these countries, if the factors that currently are inhibiting recycling can be overcome.