If you are familiar with car's, you may change the oil in your vehicle yourself. This can help you to save some money, or may even be a task you enjoy doing. However, when you are done, you are left with old, used oil. By law, this oil has to properly be disposed of. It cannot simply be tossed in the trash or sent down a street gutter. This is because oil can be harmful to our water supplies and animals. But this leaves you with an important question. What should you do with your old oil?

Place the Oil in a Sealable Container

After changing the oil in your car, you will be left with an oil pan full of old oil. The first thing you want to do is put this oil into plastic containers that can be sealed shut. Make sure there are no holes or cracks in the container. Old plastic milk or juice jugs or plastic coffee containers are perfect. Do not use anything that once held any chemicals like plastic tubs that help chlorine. The oil can interact with these chemicals. Once all of the oil is in the container, seal the container shut.

Dispose of the Oil

There are a few different ways you can dispose of the containers containing oil. Unfortunately, in St. Paul, MN. you cannot put your oil jugs on the sidewalk and have them picked up on recycling days like you can in other parts of the country. However, your local garbage collection center will take the old oil from you as long as it is properly sealed in a leak-proof container. The garbage collection service is not typically open late, so call before you stop by for their hours.

The other option for disposing of old car oil is through an auto repair shop. Auto repair shops perform oil changes. This means that they have tons of their own oil to dispose of. Most will work with large oil recycling companies in town to dispose of their oil. If you are struggling to dispose of your old oil, call around and see if any of these shops can take the oil off of your hands for you. You may be surprised that many will help you to safely and properly dispose of the oil.

Are you looking to dispose of oil you changed yourself? Ace Auto Parts in St. Paul, MN. can help. Bring us in your jugs of old automotive oil and we will properly dispose of it for free, helping to keep the world we all live in safe. And if you need any automotive repairs, we can help with those as well.