Oil (£)
How to dispose of your old unwanted oil appropriately.
Waste oil (non-edible) is now considered to be hazardous waste and should be disposed of with care.
Such items include:
- A wide variety of waste oils (e.g. machine engine and lubricating oils - whether mineral, synthetic or readily-biodegradable)
- Any oil-soaked items (e.g. oily rags, oil filters, etc.)
If in any doubt as to whether your oils are hazardous, contact the Waste and Recycling team.
Oil Storage
The Water Environment (Oil Storage) (Scotland) Regulations 2006 came into force on 1 April 2006 with a three staged approach leading to improved storage and containment of all types of oil on commercial and agricultural premises.
The final stage of the regulations comes into effect on 1 April 2010.
All oil storage tanks and containers (including those storing waste oils) must now comply with bunding, capacity and containment requirements. The requirements being more onerous for tanks and for containers over 200 litres but still affecting containers under 200-litres. This affects new, planned and existing oil storage containers. More information is available in a leaflet produced by SEPA, see link below as well as SEPA's website.
Disposal route
Oil or oil-cleaning agent, must NEVER be poured down the drains.
The waste oil and any items contaminated with waste oil must be separately collected and safely stored prior to consignment as special waste.
Please contact the Waste and Recycling Team to arrange an uplift listing all items as well as volume(s), using the chemical waste uplift form. If you have drums over 5 litres specific regulations apply.
For more information please refer to Waste Guidance Notes, see link below.
13 Infirmary Street
Edinburgh EH1 1LT
United Kingdom
This article was published on Aug 10, 2011