Kitchen Garden Forum

Just thought that I would share a worthwhile tip when changing oil in your cultivators etc..



This tip saves me wasting fuel in taking sump oil to the recycling depot and therefore of course reduces green house gasses.

Best wishes to all my fellow environmentalists

Barney

Amazing what used to be considered acceptable fifty-four years ago.

Hi,

Very scary. It's amazing what people use to do. Unfortunately we're dealing with these bad practices now and will be for many years to come. Some pollutants remain in the environment for a very long time.

Fortunately, there's been a huge advancement in environmental protection and recognition for the need to protect our soils and water environment.

Pawty

I go along with the posts on this subject, but have a caveat!. Isn't oil a natural organic material, originating from million year old fossils? As such surely it would be absorbed back into the environment? I seem to remember experts saying, after one of the oil disasters, that it is better to leave alone rather than spray it with detergents.

The programme on recently said that naturally occurring bacteria broke the oil down and cleaned things up much faster than the detergents used to disperse the oil after the Torrey Canyon disaster so the sump oil disposal might not be as bad as it looks. I suppose it depends what heavy metals or other substances are in it. It's probably nastier than crude oil.

Used oil contains metals from what it was protecting and if from an engine byproducts of heat and combustion.

Oil floating on the sea, in the open or being agitated will naturally decay, but buried it can seep down to the water table and spread through the soil.

Hi,

Hydrocarbons do degrade under certain conditions ... but not that quickly - and depends on the type. Also can contain other nasties as plumbpudding said.

Where I live 75% of our drinking water comes from groundwater sources (amazing how many people don't realise this). Once pollutants get in it it is very difficult, costly and timely to clean up... so prevention is always better than cure! Oil can sit on top of groundwater, but it gradually releases dissolved pollutants into it. Not good. I work in this area so always take every opportunity to promote good practice and take measures to prevent pollution.

It's a topic I am very passionate about and it's very close to my heart so great to see it discussed here.

Pawty

The wreck of the torrey canyon is still causing problems with the odd few thousand gallons washing up on shores

robo wrote:The wreck of the torrey canyon is still causing problems with the odd few thousand gallons washing up on shores

Honestly? That was 50 years ago! I remember that because my youngest daughter was born just after it happened and she is 50 this year. The tankers with detergents were marked with a large "TC" on the front and given traffic priority to rush to the site.