If you work on your own car at home or in a nearby garage, you'll likely end up with quite a bit of used motor oil to dispose of. The responsible thing to do after every oil change would be to store your used oil in clean containers, preferably the containers the oil came in when you purchased it. You can then hire a waste oil disposal service like Wren Oil or transport the oil to a local oil collection facility.

Dumping Sump Oil in the Trash Will Come Back to Haunt You

The one thing you should never do — no matter how busy you are — is dump your used motor oil in with your household rubbish. Disposing of waste oil in that manner harms the environment, the animals and insects in it and, eventually, you.

To understand how this might happen, you need to be aware of what happens to most of your household rubbish.

Household Rubbish Goes into the Ground

Every year in Australia, most of the household rubbish Australians throw away ends up buried in landfill sites across the country. And while Australia does recycle 42.6% of its waste, that still leaves a huge amount to go into the ground.

As a result, if you dispose of your used motor oil along with your household waste, that dirty, contaminated oil will likely end up in a landfill site somewhere near you.

Used Motor Oil Contains Harmful Contaminants

Clean, motor oil is the colour of honey. However, once it has been through your car's engine, it comes out black. This is because it is now contaminated with pollutants like dioxins and benzene, both of which are harmful to the environment, and metals like arsenic, lead and cadmium.

When they are underground, these pollutants gradually leach into the soil where they could contaminate Australia's precious groundwater supplies.

Dumped Motor Oil Contaminates Groundwater Supplies

Did you know that humans can only use 0.3% of Earth's water supply and that most of that useable water is underground? That water is known as groundwater. Groundwater feeds the streams, rivers, lakes and springs that give humanity its supply of freshwater.

Australia uses its groundwater supply in its mining, food production and manufacturing industries, and this helps to generate 34 billion dollars for the country annually. In addition, Australia's wildlife population, as well as its human population, relies on this water supply to survive. If just one litre of contaminated motor oil can pollute 1 million litres of freshwater, imagine the ramifications.

When oil gets into rivers and streams, it coats plants, preventing them from taking in food via photosynthesis. Dirty motor oil also affects the food chain, lowering the insect and animal populations. If that isn't bad enough already, animals and insects that do survive become contaminated, and if humans eat those animals, they too can become contaminated.

As you can see, throwing away your used motor oil can have a devastating impact on Australia's economy and, more importantly, its environment.

Dispose of Your Used Oil Responsibly

If you only produce a little used oil from changing your car's oil every so often at home, find a local council-run collection facility near you. However, if you run your own garage or business that produces large quantities of sump oil, you need a reliable waste oil collection service to pick up your waste oil.

You can then be sure that your waste oil will be recycled and reused rather than dumped in — or on — the ground. But remember, don't contaminate your used motor oil by putting other solutions, such as thinners in it, as this makes the oil much harder to recycle.