Why do certain oil's need to be recycled separately?
 

For example - the used cooking oil recycle bin outside most restaurant's clearly state's that the only thing to be put in there is used cooking oil. So why is it that we need to separate car oil and cooking oil when recycling?

Lol is this for real??

On the chance your serious the reason is cooking oil is safe to eat and can be recycled for us to eat again, motor oil is not recommended for frying as it tends to kill peoples when you do that.

:popcorn:


Edit: and if you want more details you can always try google??

In addition, used cooking oil can be used for bio-fuel; used motor oil can be used in oil burners to produce heat. Not so much the other way around.


humfrz

:cheers: :popcorn:

Just a little anecdote: There is a recycling center up in the hills near my parents house to which I used to take used motor oil to dump. They had a sign that clearly stated, "motor oil only." So, to ensure that no contaminants, such as coolant, was in the customers' oil, the "tech" there would dip a paper clip in the oil and light it with a lighter. He would then stare at the flame intently, looking for something, and then declare it okay or not okay to pour into their tanks. My oil was never rejected, even when I had gear oil mixed in, so I don't know what that test accomplished or if it was really nothing more than a scare tactic by the recycling facility... :lol:

By your reasoning, I can use some PAM cooking spray in my engine for lubrication purposes.

Yes I was actually serious. Have you ever seen industrial sized recycling bins for cooking oil before? That stuff looks un-salvagable and looks worse then car oil. That is what got me thinking - if this stuff looks like worse than car oil, why cant you dump in car oil as well? But as other users have mentioned, you can aparently use it for bio fuel as well. But trust me man, if you ever seen an industrial sized recycling bin for cooking oil, you would and could not possibly see how that stuff is recyclable.

Haha I know exactly what your talking about, I used to manage a DQ and we had one of those. But I can see where you're coming from as that stuff is nasty!! I never really thought about how they recycled it though

To OP cooking oil is made from plants and motor/gear oil is from petroleum(or whatever synthetic is). Despite them sharing the name "oil" they are very different chemically and used very differently

Well - If petroleum comes from "Dinosaurs" then isnt it technically "animal oil" like whale oil and we should be able to eat it?

Frankly I dont believe that all Petroleum content comes from Dinosaurs or "plant/animal matter" anyway.

Im pretty sure science proved that's where it came from... But while you have a valid point that it came from animals, it's also aged millions of years and been subject to extreme pressure and heat. While they may have once been similar, they are very much not so now

Ok, so if Earth's Hydrocarbons came from "dinosaurs", then where do you propose that the oceans of Methane & Ethane came from that cover the surface of Titan the moon of Saturn?
Did those hydrocarbons come from "dinosaurs"?

I am confident that every planetary body in the solar system has hydrocarbons (petroleum) once we look hard enough.

Did Earth's petroleum get contaminated by some biologically active components on Earth? - Sure.
There have not been enough plants & animals alive in Earth's history to explain the vast quantities of the stuff we have found, even if every single living cell had been converted to petroleum.

Petroleum and hydrocarbons were present on Earth FIRST, then came the life.
Not the other way around.

I'm not sure you comprehend how many plants have been alive in earths history. And while the chemical components to make oil may exist elsewhere and existed here prelife, that doesn't mean it didn't require the plant and animal material to make it. However I'm quite sure no one knows for sure. You've made a valid point but neither of us can prove either way

That's mostly because car engines are not full of burnt food scraps.

When you have something "consistent" as motor oil, even used motor oil looks semi-decent (aside from the dark color). Cooking oil is usually not filtered by restaurants and is full of whatever was cooked in it along with the grease and fats from food processing.

Have you ever cooked bacon then let the fat cool on the pan? Imagine that x 10000.

-alex