Proper Automotive
Waste Management

Resource Manual



State of California

Gray Davis
Governor

Winston H. Hickox
Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency

·

Integrated Waste Management Board


Linda Moulton-Patterson
Board Chair

Michael Paparian
Board Member


José Medina
Board Vice Chair

Cheryl Peace
Board Member


Steven R. Jones
Board Member

Carl Washington
Board Member

·

Mark Leary
Executive Director


For additional copies of this publication, contact:

Integrated Waste Management Board
Public Affairs Office, Publications Clearinghouse (MS–6)
1001 I Street
P.O. Box 4025
Sacramento, CA 95812-4025
www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Publications/
1-800-CA-WASTE (California only) or (916) 341-6306

Publication # 610-03-012
Printed on recycled paper containing a minimum of 30 percent postconsumer content.

Copyright © 2003 by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. All rights reserved. This publication, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

The statements and conclusions of this report are those of the contractor and not necessarily those of the California Integrated Waste Management Board, its employees, or the State of California. The State makes no warranty, expressed or implied, and assumes no liability for the information contained in the succeeding text. Any mention of commercial products or processes shall not be construed as an endorsement of such products or processes.

Prepared as part of contract number IWM-C9076 (total contract amount: $64,000, includes other services).

The California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) does not discriminate on the basis of disability in access to its programs. CIWMB publications are available in accessible formats upon request by calling the Public Affairs Office at (916) 341-6300. Persons with hearing impairments can reach the CIWMB through the California Relay Service, 1-800-735-2929.

The energy challenge facing California is real.
Every Californian needs to take immediate action to reduce energy consumption. For a list of simple ways you can reduce demand and cut your energy costs, Flex Your Power and visit www.consumerenergycenter.org/flex/index.html.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements iii

Problems (Challenges and Barriers) 1

Environmental Impact 1

Worker Safety 11

Regulations 17

Solutions 23

Waste Reduction 23

Recycling 24

Waste Management 27

Liquid Waste 33

In Vehicle Usage 33

In-Shop Usage 57

Solid Waste 80

Oil Filters 80

Fuel Filters 85

Air Filters 86

Oil Containers 87

Cans and Other Containers 87

Glass and Paper 88

Asbestos 89

Brake Shoes and Pads 93

Scrap Metal 94

Lead-Acid Batteries 96

Tires 98

Absorbents and Used Rags 102

Fluorescent Bulbs and High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lamps 105

Aerosol Cans 109

Gaseous Waste 116

Refrigerants 116

Volatile Organic Compounds/Solvents 121

Appendices 123

Appendix A—Toxicity Characteristic Hazardous Wastes 124

Appendix B—Listed Hazardous Wastes 125

Appendix C—Hazardous Waste Generator Requirements 126

Appendix D—Oil Related Rules, Guidelines, and Legislation 128

Appendix E—A History of Automotive Oil 131

Appendix F—Automotive Lubricant Information 133

Appendix G—The Rebuttable Presumption 136

Appendix H—Re-Refined Oil—Closing the Loop 137

Appendix I—Comparisons of Antifreeze Recycling Methods 145

Appendix J—Brake Fluid Information 146

Appendix K—Information About N-Hexane Use 149

Appendix L—Scrap Tire Information 159

Appendix M—California Scrap Tire Information 160

Appendix N—Handling Refrigerant 164

Appendix O—Environmental Regulations History Overview 171

Appendix P—How to Create an Oil Life Extension Program at Your Facility 179

Appendix Q—U.S. EPA Waste Codes: F List 182

Glossary of Terms 188

Links 199

References 200

Acknowledgements

Manual Production

The Proper Automotive Waste Management instructional package was produced at Shasta Community College in Redding, California, under the direction of the Used Oil/Household Hazardous Waste Branch at the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). The CIWMB funded the research, development, and dissemination of the instructional package. The following deserve special acknowledgement for their contributions:

Research and Development

Divan Fard Shasta Community College

Christine Flowers Shasta Community College

Raleigh Ross Shasta Community College

Contract Management

Christina Cicero Words, Ink

Natalie Lee California Integrated Waste Management Board

Vicki Shipman Shasta Community College

Dana Stokes California Integrated Waste Management Board

Editor

Aleta Zak California Integrated Waste Management Board

Instructional Package Review and Field Testing

Keith Ashby Shasta-Trinity Regional Occupation Program

Jeff Cummings Shasta Community College

Kristin Ducket Shasta Community College

John Ison Department of Toxic Substances Control

Ted Lord Shasta Community College

Steve Lustig Steve’s Automotive Repair

Natalie Marcanio Department of Toxic Substances Control

Tyrone Smith Department of Toxic Substances Control

Mark Smith Shasta Community College

Kim Stempien City of Redding Solid Waste

Steve Tomerey Yuba Community College

Roger Vines Redding One Stop

iii

iii

Problems (Challenges and Barriers)

Environmental Impact

Environment is all of the external factors affecting an organism. These factors may be other living organisms (biotic factors) or nonliving variables (abiotic factors), such as water, soil, climate, light, and oxygen. All interacting biotic and abiotic factors together make up an ecosystem.

Organisms and their environment constantly interact, and both are changed by this interaction. Additionally, environmental factors, singly or in combination, ultimately limit the size that any population may attain. This limit, a population's carrying capacity, is usually reached because needed resources are in short supply. Occasionally, carrying capacity may be dictated by the direct actions of other species, as when predators limit the number of their prey in a specific area.

Like all other living beings, humans have clearly changed their environment, but they have done so generally on a grander scale than have other species. Some of these changes—such as the destruction of the world's tropical rain forests to create grazing land for cattle, or the drying up of almost three-quarters of the Aral Sea, once the world's fourth-largest freshwater lake, for irrigation purposes—have led to altered climate patterns, which in turn have changed the distribution of species of animals and plants.

Scientists are working to understand the long-term consequences that human actions have on ecosystems, while environmentalists—professionals in various fields, as well as concerned citizens in the United States and other countries—are struggling to lessen the impact of human activity on the natural world.

Understanding The Environment

The science of ecology is the study of the interactions that determine the abundance and distribution of organisms. In other words, ecology attempts to explain why individuals live where they do and why their populations are the sizes they are.

No population, human or otherwise, can grow indefinitely; eventually, some biotic or abiotic variable will begin to limit population growth. This basic ecological principle was first established in 1840 by German chemist Justus von Liebig and has been called the Law of the Minimum. From a human standpoint, this means that all of the world's physical resources are in finite supply.

Ecologists also have discovered that all species in an ecosystem interact with one another, either directly or indirectly. A classic ecological experiment illustrates this point very well.

American ecologist Robert Paine, working in the rocky intertidal region of the Pacific coast, found stable invertebrate communities dominated by fifteen species of animals, including starfish, mussels, limpets, barnacles, and chitons. When Paine removed all of the starfish from the area, the community collapsed, and eventually only eight invertebrate species were common. Although it was not obvious in the undisturbed regions, the starfish were preying heavily on one of the mussel species and keeping its numbers down. With the starfish removed, the population of this mussel increased, and the mussel was able to out-compete many other species of invertebrates. Thus, the loss of one species, the starfish, indirectly led to the loss of an additional six species and a transformation of the community.

Typically, because the species that coexist in natural communities have evolved together for many generations, they have established a balance, and their populations remain relatively stable. Occasionally, when humans introduce a non-native species to an ecosystem, dramatic disruptions occur, often because the natural predators of the introduced species are not present. For example, early sailors routinely introduced goats to isolated oceanic islands, intending for the goats to roam freely and serve as a source of meat when the sailors later came ashore. Free from all natural predators, the goats thrived and, in the process, overgrazed many of the islands. With a change in plant composition, many of the native animal species were driven to extinction. A simple action, the introduction of goats to an island, yielded many changes in the island ecosystem, demonstrating that all members of a community are closely interconnected.

In the 1970s the British scientist James Lovelock formulated the Gaia hypothesis, which has attracted many followers. According to this theory, named after the Greek goddess of the earth, the planet behaves like a single living organism. Lovelock postulated that the earth, like many organisms, could regulate its temperature, dispose of its wastes, and fight off disease. Although the Gaia hypothesis serves as a convenient metaphor for the interconnections among living beings, it does not have any particular scientific merit.

From a scientific viewpoint, the earth is not a single living organism, but it can be viewed as a single integrated system. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), using its expertise in planetary and space sciences, is collaborating with other U.S. governmental agencies in the use of artificial satellites to study global change. NASA's undertaking, begun in 1991, is called Mission to Planet Earth. This project is part of an international effort linking numerous satellites into a single Earth Observing System (EOS). EOS is designed to increase knowledge of the interactions taking place among the atmosphere, land, and oceans; to assess the impact of natural and human events on the planet; and to provide the data that permit sound environmental policy decisions to be made.

The Impact

Many of the global environmental issues that we face today and in the future are the same as those of the past century. Issues such as overpopulation, deforestation and desertification have been part of global history for centuries. More recent environmental issues include ozone depletion, global warming, acid rain, toxic airborne emissions, waste generation, and disposal problems as well as depletion of nonrenewable resources.

For the most part, environmental issues are linked in more than one way. Human populations, food, water and energy are linked. How a country chooses to address the issues and problems associated with a growing population’s increasing use of land and water for living, industrialization, and use of land, water and atmosphere for waste disposal will have a lasting impact on that country’s economy and human development.


Industrial development has always included accidents, including explosions, seepage of toxins into soil or water, and atmospheric releases. In America one of the worst industrial accidents occurred on April 16, 1947, when a freighter being loaded with nitrate exploded. The resulting three-day fire caused 752 deaths, injured another 3,000 people, and destroyed much of the infrastructure and housing in Texas City, Texas. More recent shipping-related accidents have involved the release of harmful chemicals, especially crude oil, resulting in severe environmental and economic impact.

Three oil shipping accidents in particular have resulted in more stringent environmental regulations. The Amoco Cadiz, which was owned by the U.S. company Standard Oil, ran aground while off the Brittany coast of France on March 16, 1978. The ship’s steering gear was damaged by the heavy waves of storm-force gales. The result: 68.7 million gallons of oil were spilled.

The French government employed approximately 8,000 people to clean the entire coastline, and Standard Oil paid $16.7 million to the French for restitution. More than 22,000 seabirds were killed, and the oyster industry suffered for months. But the coast suffered less damage than originally anticipated because of the sea’s natural cleansing action.

As a result of this accident, supertankers now have to have exceptionally strong steering gear. The primary lesson learned from this disaster was that the captain of the tanker must be the sole judge of danger to his ship and must act accordingly in order to prevent delay of proper action.

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit submerged rocks on a reef in Prince William Sound off the southern coast of Alaska, releasing 11 million gallons of crude oil. The captain was drunk on duty and had retired to his cabin, leaving an inexperienced crew member to guide the ship through the Sound.

The resulting environmental devastation included the death of 34,000 shore birds, 1,000 sea otters and uncounted numbers of fish, which jeopardized the area’s $100 million per year fishing industry. The total cost of the spill and cleanup attempts was $1.5 billion.

Prior to construction of the Alaskan Pipeline, many environmentalists raised issues concerning the possibility of an oil spill in the Sound, but officials of Alyeska, the oil consortium formed to pump oil from Alaska’s north slope to the terminus in Valdez insisted that a spill would be “unlikely.” They assured congress that they would have trained people on a spill site within five hours.

However, the company disbanded its full-time highly trained cleanup crew during the mid-1980s and replaced it with a part-time inexperienced one. More than 14 hours passed after the spill before this crew arrived at the spill site. In response to this accident, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. This law revised section 311 of the Clean Water Act to prevent future oil and hazardous substance discharges; tighten ship, personnel, and equipment requirements; create a $1 billion cleanup fund; strengthen federal oil removal authority; and increase civil and criminal penalties for the spilling of oil into the sea.

Many global issues create controversy in the scientific community, and on every issue scientists hold opposing points of view. One such example is global warming. Some scientists believe that we are entering a warm period. This could be due to increased accumulations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and freons known as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) that trap heat.

Data analysis indicates that during 1970–80, the carbon dioxide input calculated to increase the average air temperature approximately 0.14 0C and the other gases would collectively lead to a 0.10 0C increase. These gases are mainly produced by human combustion of fossil fuels. Other scientists point out that too little is known about the fundamental factors that drive the earth’s climate to draw any conclusions about human activity and global warming.