Technical How do you dispose of used antifreeze?

Wow!!

 

I hope you realize this is a joke. I don't even have a mother in law...

 

That's what happens when you give them antifreeze!

 

A nuclear engineer that used to work for me always said; “the solution to pollution is dilution”. Lol!
He also called out stuff from sub-par vendors as “billybobbananaboatfactory”. Haha! Still makes me laugh…

 

No, don't commit animal cruelty.

 

I just put it in all the old cars I have sitting around - 'till they actually get used someday... projects-in-waiting.
Another use is ~1-2 gal in a 5gal bucket used as a homemade mouse catcher. Dead bodies don't rot in antifreeze, just don't want the cat to get into it. F'n mice never seen to go & stay away...
Marcus...

 

I used to live near a water treatment plant, and every weekend they would have free dropoff for oil and anything else. I once had several gallons that had oil, diesel, grease, coolant, water, brake fluid and probably mud from when I was rebuilding an old jeep. I would just slide a 3 foot wide paint mixing tray under the vehicle while draining things. I told them "Anything that can come from a vehicle, ended up in here". They smiled and said "No problem, we'll take it!"

 

I'm on am acreage but only about 10 minutes from a recycle center in town. All my used oil and antifreeze goes to the recycle center. I grew up with my dad using it for "dust control" around the yard, but taking it to the recycle center leaves me with zero guilt.

 

My dad was a farmer in South Dakota most of his life and never ever would put it on the ground. Look back, it probably got put into the shop furnace

 

I had to take an o/t car for smog the other day, and actually asked the local shop about this on a whim. They told me to just bring the coolant by and they would dispose of however much I needed to get rid of.

 

Just a friendly suggestion for all who have fouled coolant issues, run a coolant filter! After a few days your coolant will be much clearer and then you just have to drain and fill. No flushing required!

 

Finally found a hazardous waste event nearby that will take it this coming Saturday.

 

Just don't turn up in your avatar or they might crush it if you turn your back for too long.

 

@Adriatic Machine,

I had never heard of such a thing so I Googled it. Who knew?

 

OK; I'm going to hijack my own thread. There appear to be sizes of coolant filters to go in the upper radiator hose and in the heater hose.

Would one work as well as the other? i.e., does one work better?

 

Just be aware they can clog rather quickly depending on how much debris is floating around in there. I ran the full size spin-on through the heater hose so if it gets clogged it wouldn’t overheat.

 

Most heavy duty diesel engines have coolant filters on them. Some of the coolant filters that are used on diesel engines have SCA’s (Supplemental Coolant Additives) in them. If you are going to plumb in a coolant filter, be sure to get one without SCA’s. If you are looking for a kit, ( base, filter, hoses, shut off valves), look up a coolant filter kit for a Ford 6.0 Powerstroke Diesel. Yes, I know it’s O/T, but it’s for an On Topic application.

 

I have a water filled lawn roller. Except it is half filled with antifreeze. I also have no pets, so there is a antifreeze varmint trap in all my out buildings. I have to clean them about every two years, and refill with more used antifreeze.

Bucket Mouse Trap

 

@Chevy Pope,

For some reason I was just rereading this thread and began wondering: do you pour the antifreeze solution into your burn/fire pit and let the water evaporate out before lighting another fire?

 

Tractor tires

 

then when you get a flat it disappears into the ground………..
the soil acts as a filter doesn’t it……?

 

I just put it back in empty antifreeze jugs, mark them as used antifreeze and take them to the Hazmat site at the county dump for proper disposal. At the same time dumping my used oil in the waste oil tank 25 ft away. There is a recycler that comes around and picks up the antifreeze and another that picks up the waste oil.

 

I pour a little bit a qt. or so at time on the fire both AF and used oil, doesn’t take long to burn up.
Most of us here are old enough to either had or remember cars without coolant overflow tanks just think how many gallons were dropped onto roads etc. back in day and even now. Ethylene glycol biodegrades relatively fast. If I’m not going to burn brush and what not I take mine to our dump which has a barrel or two for used automotive/farm fluids - this is the best way to dispose of said fluids.
Dan

 

my rear tires don’t leak. So we good

 

Yeah That.*
Not pretty. Don't ask.

 

Put it in a box and leave it on your porch.

 

Cars aren't really into sweets, which is the attraction but dogs will lap it up. It's a quick trip to kidney failure and damned expensive to treat. But, true story. About 1989, I was a new vet and near Christmas a dog came in on emergency having drunk antifreeze.There was no available antidote then and no emergency hospital, but theoretically you could replace the ethylene glycol with alcohol. Someone had brought my boss a bottle of vodka inside a knit poodle bottle cover. I put the dog on a vodka IV and watched him get drunk, but he lived. I was a brash and bold doctor back then. I don't remember but my boss was the sort of person who would .be pissed I'd used their vodka.

 

Hello,

Our history of disposal of used oil and antifreeze was to take it to the two disposal sites in or near Long Beach. One was on 2nd and PCH. That is now one of the busiest shopping/dining intersections in all along the PCH corridor. The southeast corner was a vast wasteland with oil rigs and wide hilly slopes. Nothing was there. So, the county was using it as a disposal site. Disposal of anything that a person can bring to the site and dump it themselves. Minimal cost to get in and trucks to family sedans were all over the area.

Our dad took us there in his 49 Buick Roadmaster to dump some scrap out of our Westside of Long Beach house. The previous owner left a bunch of stuff in the garage and it took up one whole stall. So, it took us several trips to get rid of all of the stuff from pipes, to liquids to wood, to boxes full of stuff. A short drive later, we were bumping up and down going to the designated spot to clean out the trunk.

It took many years of just sitting as a dirt field and those that used it could see it being empty. The new generation thought it a waste of land, just sitting empty. They knew nothing of the dumping grounds from early days. When we were cruising around the Belmont Shore area, the main street (2nd St.) went right by this intersection. Driving east was lonely dark road heading into Orange County and past the U.S. Naval Station grounds, which is another lonely area. But, good for drag racing in the most lonely, empty road in the whole area. Miles away from any housing…

Afterwards, another site opened up near the 405 freeway where the Goodyear Airship has its landings and takeoffs. Across the freeway, is/was a tiny golf course for many years. But, now, some construction has begun. Perhaps no building on top of the landfill for the 25-30 year time period was ok back then. We used to see the golf course as we drove up the 405 freeway in college, but it is still not covered with industrial buildings, yet.

Jnaki

In those days, that was the correct procedures, drive out to a designated area in a vast empty hillside or flat ground location. Follow the bumpy road to the allowed dumping area and dump the goods. It did not matter if it was liquid or solid. The road grader machine covered it all, while the roller flattener machine came to flatten out the loose dirt covering the trash.

In our current days, we, too used to drive out to a local So Cal dump site and followed the winding road to the “Official” dump site. After we dumped our own stuff, liquid or solid stuff, as we drove off, the big graders and roller machines had a field day covering up the stuff and flattening it for the next layer of covered junk.

Finally, in the mid 2000s the huge official county dump site had two locations. One was for dumping anything that was not liquid or paint residue. At the time electronics were also allowed to dump and cover. But within several more years, that stopped and liquids, paint, electronics were told to go to the other side of the road to the recycled area and that is where those things will get separated, then sent to the specific locations elsewhere. So, no mixing of the paint and electronics, each had a separate area. The car fluids were also in a separate area for disposal in a toxic waste area somewhere no one knows, or wants to know. YRMV