Proper Disposal Of Used Coolant? I Have Bumb Qestions

[Eric MFG]

Hi Guys,

This is a dumb question. I have a mill center that holds 40 or so gallons of coolant and use coolant MB50/50 (it's OK stuff will find better soon). What is the proper method of disposal of used coolant?

Thanks In advance!
Eric

[DareBee]

Mine goes to an "environmental cleaning" service.
ie. the same type of company that gets oil at the auto shop and does the service on the parts washer and paint gun cleaning tank.
I think it costs me $100 a barrel and a huge pile of paperwork (initially) to setup the "waste generator account" with the government.

[Geof]

As Darebee suggests the proper method is to a company licensed to take waste oil and oil contaminated water. It will cost a few dollars but if you just try dumping it down the drain, which is a dumb thing to do, and get detected it will cost more than a few dollars in most locations.

[fizzissist]

We were going to construct a simple solar "still" where a simple, cheap, low power pump would circulate tired coolant over a solar heated surface to evaporate the water off, thereby concentrating the solution to minimize disposal volume...and cost.

When we proudly told the EH&S boys about our plan to save them money, we were told in no uncertain terms absolutely Not! You see, that was "processing", and we didn't have a license to process. That's their job.

See what happens when you try and save the Gubmint money??

[mactec54]

If you used GreenCut you would not have this problem it's Biodegradable & 100% synthetic you never need to change it, just clean the chips out of your tank. & put the greencut back in, even tramp oil is not a problem the GreenCut just eats it up & keeps everything clean, I can supply this product in the US

Darebee the GreenCut is a Canadian product

[HuFlungDung]

Originally Posted by fizzissist We were going to construct a simple solar "still" where a simple, cheap, low power pump would circulate tired coolant over a solar heated surface to evaporate the water off, thereby concentrating the solution to minimize disposal volume...and cost. When we proudly told the EH&S boys about our plan to save them money, we were told in no uncertain terms absolutely Not! You see, that was "processing", and we didn't have a license to process. That's their job. See what happens when you try and save the Gubmint money??

What a crock! Evaporation of water is as natural as sunshine. Do you suppose they like collecting the fees on a per gallon basis?

[Nastyzen]

How about separating the mix by freezing the water out ?Anybody ever try this method?It`s about to get frigid up here and it`s free.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by fizzissist ......When we proudly told the EH&S boys about our plan to save them money, we were told in no uncertain terms absolutely Not! You see, that was "processing", and we didn't have a license to process. That's their job...

If you are in a place that doesn't have excess sunshine buy on of these and don't tell anyone.

http://www.industrialairsolutions.co...vaporators.htm

http://www.coolantconsultants.com/evaporators.htm

Although I doubt it is worth the effort. We tried double skimming our waste coolant and evaporating the coolant that was now very clear of tramp oil but it was very time consuming to bring the volume down by more than about 50%. Now we just store it all in a big tank and call a tank truck once a year to take it away at a cost of about $1000.

[fizzissist]

Originally Posted by Geof If you are in a place that doesn't have excess sunshine buy on of these and don't tell anyone. ............ Now we just store it all in a big tank and call a tank truck once a year to take it away at a cost of about $1000.

I think 300+ days/yr of sunshine would be considered at least adequate...

No, the situation is, I'm perfectly confident, that we would be undermining someone's empire. The $1000 truckload is the key. You can't have a budget if there's no costs, and the greater the costs, the bigger the budget you can argue for.

Then, when you have a big budget, you have to have big budget administrators and administrative assistants, and more technicians to haul the stuff, and more trucks to haul more stuff,....ad infinitum.

Even if we only reduced volume by 50% it would have been a no-cost effort.....but nooooo........we were doing someone else's job, and that's just not any way to build a pyramid.

We have EH&S guys ...2 of 'em...come by every year and do an audit. In the audit they stick a small bar code label on each and every container of everything. WD-40, Dykem, the coolant, the Vactra, my bottle of Mequire's Plastic Polish, ........you name it, it gets a label. Everything.

All in the name of safety. Oddly, not that long ago, the fire alarm in the building went off and, being that it's noisy as hell, everyone went outside and stood around, waiting. Nothing happened. We waited 20 minutes. No firetrucks, no ambulances, no SWAT helicopters, nothin'. Finally, someone called the fire department. They didn't know anything.

Someone had been working on the alarm system a day or so earlier, and the alarm company that monitors our system didn't relay the alarm to the fire department because they thought someone was working on the system.

Penny wise, pound foolish.

[ace of spades]

I am in South Africa, where do I get Greencut.

My problem is that there is only one company willing to take in soluble oil and unfortunately we must do the transportation and the company is about 350km (220miles) from us.

Greencut sounds like a genuine solution.

I must say that I really don't know what all the other machine shops do with their used coolants (dump in the sewer?)

[TOTALLYRC]

Originally Posted by mactec54 If you used GreenCut you would not have this problem it's Biodegradable & 100% synthetic you never need to change it, just clean the chips out of your tank. & put the greencut back in, even tramp oil is not a problem the GreenCut just eats it up & keeps everything clean, I can supply this product in the US Darebee the GreenCut is a Canadian product

Hi Mactec54,
your shameless plug for selling the green cut needed a web address or a the proper way to get it from you.

Mike

[DareBee]

Originally Posted by mactec54 If you used GreenCut you would not have this problem it's Biodegradable & 100% synthetic you never need to change it, just clean the chips out of your tank. & put the greencut back in, even tramp oil is not a problem the GreenCut just eats it up & keeps everything clean, I can supply this product in the US Darebee the GreenCut is a Canadian product

Why do they push the Biodegradable bit so hard? If it never needs changed - who cares?

I am looking into the product. If it as good as you claim - A trial is in order.

What is the changeover procedure? Last time I changed coolant the "bacteria" from the coolant before (which never stank) almost instantly infected the new coolant, making a big mess. They told me AFTERWARDS that I had to use a special solution (Biocide) to wash out with before change over.