Disposing of engine coolant?

I pulled an engine with a gallon or so of green stuff. Can't burn it in the recycling oil burn furnaces, how do you get rid of it?

Thanx, Dan

Here are a few possibilities in your area: http://search.earth911.com/?what=antifreeze&where=SARATOGA+SPRINGS%2C+NY&latitude=&longitude=&country=&province=&city=

miatame asked his local municipality and they said pour it right down the drain as that all ends up in the water treatment plant... it sure has made cooling systems easier!

WilberM3 wrote: miatame asked his local municipality and they said pour it right down the drain as that all ends up in the water treatment plant... it sure has made cooling systems easier!

unless you have a septic tank. I bring mine to work, do you guys have a shop there

WilberM3 wrote: miatame asked his local municipality and they said pour it right down the drain as that all ends up in the water treatment plant... it sure has made cooling systems easier!

This will depend on the municipality - some allow it, some don't. It can mess up the process at the treatment plant.

Send it to New Jersey?

WilberM3 wrote: miatame asked his local municipality and they said pour it right down the drain as that all ends up in the water treatment plant... it sure has made cooling systems easier!

This instead of down a storm drain, storm drain stuff usually,maybe always, bypasses treatment plant.

I'll take it. There are a few dogs in my neighborhood that everyone can hear barking most of the day and all night except apparently their owners.

Just kidding. Not about the irritating barking, but about poisoning the dogs. I realize it's the owners fault and not the dogs.

This instead of down a storm drain, storm drain stuff usually,maybe always, bypasses treatment plant.

Not anymore the system are no tide together by fed law and clean water act. A real pain for hilly citys... Rutland Vt had to build a new plant and had over 10 holding stations to hold storm drain water.

How do i know this? The pump mfg forgot to do a natural frequency calculation and i was called in to find out way the drive shaft kept snapping and pumps were noisy.

I miss feild service work..

44

I flush it down the toilet. Thats what my city's website says to do.

Don't any of your cities have Household Hazardous Waste disposal locations?

We can take ours for recycling 6 days a week for no cost.

Do any of the repair shops in your area take it in for recycling? Several around me do. Shops have been recycling antifreeze of both persuasions for years.

Mine says to flush it too

Mine says to flush it and that is what I have done in the past when on sewer system. Now I am on a septic and dont know what to do with it.

Filter it through some felt, add a new lubricant/additive package to it and put it back in the engine.

You can use some of those test strips to check if it's acidic or not before you put it back in but usually the additive fixes all of that.

Antifreeze doesn't wear out, the additives do. They recycle the stuff and that's basicly what they do.

Stop wasting money.

Shawn

44Dwarf wrote: This instead of down a storm drain, storm drain stuff usually,maybe always, bypasses treatment plant. Not anymore the system are no tide together by fed law and clean water act. A real pain for hilly citys... Rutland Vt had to build a new plant and had over 10 holding stations to hold storm drain water. How do i know this? The pump mfg forgot to do a natural frequency calculation and i was called in to find out way the drive shaft kept snapping and pumps were noisy. I miss feild service work.. 44

Please don't dump it down the storm drain unless you are absolutely sure it goes through a treatment plant. Our storm drains go right into the creek nearby, which goes into the Potomac, which goes into the (disgusting) Chesapeake.

Trans_Maro wrote: Filter it through some felt, add a new lubricant/additive package to it and put it back in the engine. You can use some of those test strips to check if it's acidic or not before you put it back in but usually the additive fixes all of that. Antifreeze doesn't wear out, the additives do. They recycle the stuff and that's basicly what they do. Stop wasting money. Shawn

Where can you get the additives?

Teh E36 M3 wrote:

44Dwarf wrote: This instead of down a storm drain, storm drain stuff usually,maybe always, bypasses treatment plant. Not anymore the system are no tide together by fed law and clean water act. A real pain for hilly citys... Rutland Vt had to build a new plant and had over 10 holding stations to hold storm drain water. How do i know this? The pump mfg forgot to do a natural frequency calculation and i was called in to find out way the drive shaft kept snapping and pumps were noisy. I miss feild service work.. 44

Please don't dump it down the storm drain unless you are *absolutely* sure it goes through a treatment plant. Our storm drains go right into the creek nearby, which goes into the Potomac, which goes into the (disgusting) Chesapeake.

That's one of the reasons the Chesapeake is so nasty.

I know the storm drains here still flow out to the ocean..as soon as the ocean comes back.. it comes up the drains

Teh E36 M3 wrote: Where can you get the additives?

Any local parts shop usually has the bottle.

Often it's just called "water pump lubricant". Read the label, it should have ph neutralisers, anti-corrosives and lubricants in it.

Shawn

My city has a hazardous waste disposal at the dump that takes used coolant FOR FREE. As a bonus, they'll weigh your car on the way in and out.

Please don't dump your stuff down the drain unless you're ABSOLUTELY sure that's what you're supposed to do with it where you live.

Bryce

Ever wonder how may gallons of antifreeze go into the environment from the wiper fluid we use? Pretty much the same stuff no?

NOHOME wrote: Ever wonder how may gallons of antifreeze go into the environment from the wiper fluid we use? Pretty much the same stuff no?

No. wiper fluid is methanol/water/blue dye. Antifreeze in cars is usually ethylene glycol.

I suspect very few storm drains ever go to a treatment plant. The best they would do is go to a detention pond, which doesn't perform treatment other than settling out silt.

Our local county finally added an antifreeze collection point at the recycling centers. The auto parts places should take it, but for years they wouldn't.

Just for the record i never said dump it in the street drain! I siad the two drain are suposed to be tighted togather at the treatment plants. It might be a rolling conection thing where if the city's apply for fed $$ to help build new plant they they have to tie the two in togather not sure. I for One just paid $25 to get rid of 8 gallons of it myself on Friday. Also got rid of 63 tires @ $1.75 And 18 or so gallons of waste oil....Funny thing is i think my now ex land load was putting his oil with mine cause last year i got rid of all mine and I've down to one car i change myself now...plus the jugs were not my normal brand....

Many old cities and towns used to have a "combined" storm drain and sanitary sewer systems. So no matter if you flushed it down the toilet or it rained and went into a catch basin the water would come out in streams, lakes and oceans. Eventually we figured out you don't want poop floating in your harbor so we sent all this flow to treatment plants. Then later we figured out you don't want to pay to treat the water that fell as rain so they started separating these combined systems. I deal with this all day and I can tell you all the above still happens. Eventually we'll get it right...it just costs A LOT to redo 100 year old infrastructure.

Storm drain system should be clean ground or rain water. In theory this is clean water but as this water passes over dirty/oily roads and down pouted streams it picks up pollutants. The EPA is slowly passing laws which will require this water to be treated before discharging to streams, lakes and oceans. It is best to NEVER dump anything into catch basins...nothing. They are only there to collect rainwater, nothing else.

You need to be sure if you put coolant down your sink or toilet that 1. you are on a municipal sanitary sewer system (not septic), and 2. your treatment plant can handle coolant. Eventually they will produce environmentally safe coolant but right now it still isn't perfect.