And to think this was published as a good idea as late as 1963 !

And if you did the same thing in a ditch it would keep the mosquito population down!

Out of sight, out of mind. We used to dump all sorts of stuff into the ground with no thought about where it might go.

The gas station my dad and I worked at save all their old oil from oil chan gf especially, etc, in 55 gallon drums. A could times a year, we woukd use a barrel or two, borrow a pickup, and spread it on the gravel road in front of our house, for about a 1/4 mile. I believe the road commission did the same, then switched to some chloride something-or-other mix.

Not such a good idea, but you realize, oil is pumped from the ground? The ground around an oil rig would scare you. Trains, trucks, and other forms of transportation leak oil all the time. How about new asphalt, plenty of oil in that blend. No oil on the ground in a perfect world, but we aren't there yet.

Where I lived as a boy the farmers used to save the oil and spray it on the wood shake barn roofs to keep them from drying out. When one of them caught fire you could see the acrid black smoke for miles!

I came from farm country. I know the practical "farm mentality" all too well.

With the advent of ecologists, and the comedy version, ... what I call "Eco
Nazis", I get a good laugh at this old school kind of stuff that would get them
all bent out of shape.

I still laugh like hell at the time a vegan Nazi pitched a royal screaming fit in
a restaurant we were in about all the "murdering of animals" going on to make
"meat". The cops were called and the overzealous individual removed in cuffs,
still screaming in a high, shrill stream of expletives and charges of crimes against
all things right as she was stuffed in the back of the squad car.

While I can understand her concern and "argument", the hysteria and delivery
turned any valid discussion points into a parody of her intent.

About 15 years ago, I peeled some asbestos siding off a house and ground the
broken pieces into animal shapes and drilled holes in them to make a mobile. I
then took pictures and offered it up on eBay as a "fireproof" amusement toy to
hang over baby's crib, with a longwinded description of how "safe" and wonderful
it was. I brought myself to tears laughing so hard at all the overzealous fruitloops
that were going to see this and flip out.

Shur-nuff ! ..... eBay notified me shortly after listing it that my marvelous little
toy had been flagged by zealots and pulled.

F$#@!ing BEAUTIFUL !!!

In country German we filtered used engine oil and run it through a drip heater to heat our shops.

My Dad would pour used oil around the fence posts in our yard to keep the weeds down. This in eco freaky Seattle.

When I was a kid used motor oil was something to save and use along fence lines to kill weeds and preserve fence posts. We always kept a few gallons of creosote for fence posts and lower siding for the barn and other out buildings. Good stuff.

We used "old oil" on every thing that turned, balers,combines, corn pickers, you name it. Also, if there were fence poles to be dug, a pilot hole filed with "old oil" the day before loosened up the soil that made the second day's work a bunch easier. Useful stuff.

A teaspoon of used motor oil will get rid of worms!
If you have worms !

I think the statue of limitations has run out, so I'll tell my story.
I worked in a restoration shop for decades When cleaning out paint guns, etc. we'd pour the remnants into a can, when the can was full we'd take it across the road (undeveloped area) and dump it at the base of a power pole there. That pole is still there, will likely never rot now! The ground was a little discolored there, but the weeds were still growing around it, hiding out "dumping spot".
Yeah, wrong thing to do, but back then it wasn't thought about twice!
Oh, and at my Dad's place we had an old piece of sewer pipe dug into the ground with gravel just for dumping our oil changes!

Awhile back,I was showing some 30's40's era road scene pictures to a pretty (modern) mechanically savvy kid. One of the questions he asked was 'why was there always a black streak' in the middle of the road. I told him that A) prior to about '63,cars had breather pipes venting crankcase fumes down to the road, and, B) front and rear main seals used to drip a bit, even on new cars. The look of disgust and disbelief on his face was hilarious.

And, Burger, I am a little aggravated today just for general purposes. I think a few good old Gus Wilsons'Model Garage stories, from Popular Science Magazine will do me some good. Young people, they are all on the internet. Very useful and entertaining.

I blame Eco natzi every time I get a new rust spot on my vehicles. Calcium chloride dust retardant ! Oil was a metal preservative and kept the dust down .

From the Earth, to the Earth.

when I was a wee boy some eighty years ago I remember in my gram pa's shop,where he re bult battery's and other things for local garages. high on a wall there was a long metal tray thing,that would hold used oil,and from that tray hung some ropes,as I remember the rope was of good size and on the bottom of the rope was 5 gal can's [I have one of those can's in my shop till this day,I use it to put my used oil in to take to the re cycleing.]the used oil would work its way through this rope to the can below and at the end of its jurney through the rope it left the grime in the rope and the oil was re packaged to be used again,I loved to visit gramp's shop.all way's something going on there.Greg.

Widdo Bwudder and I have perfected different ways over the years to pull the
legs of people with excessive zeal for certain subjects. One sure-fire method to
cause the most committed skeptic to suck up the most bullsh!t story is to tell it
in the form of a griping rant.

Another way to double the surety is for one of us to tell the other, as if the intended
listener is not even there.

As an example, ... and we have gotten really good at this from years of practice, ...
I walk into my brother's place of work (a retail steel outlet) and he sees we have
the "right" people present for a good run, so he goes off on this bogus rant about
how he just paid $3000 to have his place sprayed for frogs and birds, and the #@!
frogs and birds just came right back, putting all the conversational focus on the
waste of money and no results.

Of course, no one else hears THAT message ! All they hear is some idiot performing
wholesale acts of killicide upon cute and harmless creatures that everybody loves.
Then it is my turn to work it, by acting as if there is nothing wrong with the subject
matter and asking what "they" used, kill count, etc., or returning the b!tch and adding
that I had to do the same thing, but use heavier toxins. The foam over of eco nuts
is awesome to behold.

In a totally different way, he'll turn to me in a crowd and say that he got no sleep
last night because of all the police at his house. Of course, I'll say "What was that
all about?" and he'll go on about finding a foot in his yard, .... adding that there was
no shoe. This one ALWAYS gets a good response, and rather than address the obvious
case of "WTF ?", he goes off on a tangent about there being no shoe, or how he should
have never called the police, because now they are going to make him pay for some
special burial. Oh man, does this get some people fired up ! And no one ever questions
that it is as bogus as the day is long !

Funny, funny stuff !

A friend of my dad worked on cars in his garage behind his house. He heated the garage with a small wood stove. To augment the wood supply he had a small copper tube fitted from a tank above the stove through a small hole in the top of the stove. There was a valve in the line that he could regulate an oil drip onto the burning wood. This extended the wood supply, disposed of used oil, and provided a hotter flame that consumed the small bit of oil smoke.

Burger: As a practical joke aficionado, you're a man after my own heart!

Our grade school maintainance crew in Phoenix in the 1970s sprayed used motor along the fence lines to kill the weeds. And my grandfather sprayed used oil on the dirt road in front of his house to control dust. Maybe that's why I have my affliction for old cars?

Potomac Speedway in Southern, Maryland used to oil the racing clay as late as the 1990s until the EPA stopped them. The racing surface was as black as asphalt.

I have seen farms in the last 10 years putting oil around fence posts, assume they are killing the weeds. That farmer has passed and young man bought the farm now. It's all up to date and nice looking now. Pretty sure he is not pouring the oil out on fence posts.

Back in the 60's we ran spray trains with 6 or 7 tanks cars of diesel fuel to spray right of way on railroad to kill grass and bushes. Did a good job.

Burger, just be sure your "bum jokes" don't backfire - since I share your warped sense of humor, I can appreciate the gag, but here's what happened to me a couple of years back . . .
A friend who outweighs me by about a hundred pounds (and not fat) came back from a rodeo in Twin Falls ranting about the PETA folk who picketed the rodeo grounds with their protests. I let him cuss for a bit, then gave him a dumb look and said in my best clueless tone, "PETA ? Oh, I belong to that !" He wheeled with fists clenched and hollered 'YOU WHAT ??!!?!?" - I thought he was going to punch my nose. I blurted, "Don't that stand for People Eating Tasty Animals ?" - then he laughed, we both laughed . . . but that was a close one !

A well driller lived down the road from us and drilled a well on his property. There was also a meter and connection to the water district. Apparently, he didn't use the well. They sold the property and the next owner used to pour his old motor oil into the well to dispose of it. Now that would go into the water table and would seem to me that it would pollute the other wells in the area. He died, so we can't get him for doing it.
Norm

So what's the problem with returning oil to the ground? Can't be any worse than a septic tank drain field. You're drinking that too.

I have a tractor that drips hydraulic oil on the dirt. Every time I move it to a different parking spot, the old spot disappears in about a month or so.

I have an old punch press that sits outside. I wash it down with used hydraulic oil and lube all the babbitt bearings with motor oil about every other month. Why? Because the old oil evaporates.

I slather used hydraulic oil on a couple of old cars stored in the open. It lasts for a couple of months. By then, you can't tell it was even touched with oil. It evaporates.

The hydrocarbons released to the air all come back to earth when it rains. And probably less than you're producing driving your Model T to the ice cream shop.

If the Eco-Nazis were so concerned about the environment, why don't they all live in grass huts and walk to work? Cripes, their carbon footprint is in the negative by simply turning on their cell phone.

Darn, I didn't want to get evolved in this but every time I hear folks talk about saving the environment, I hear hypocrisy.

Just think how much oil was wasted like that... But i'm the kind of person that would re-refine it if i could.

Ask an eco nut if they cleaned their clothes using a wash board and lye soap, when they admit they used an energy gobbling washing machine then look at them and ask if they at least were sensible enough to use a solar powered clothes dryer. The usual response is that there is no such thing as a solar powered clothes dryer then tell them about your mothers clothes line! very funny the reactions I get from this

In a full career plus extra years railroading, I never saw train cars leaking oil once outside of derailments. Locomotives dripping diesel yes, but not a single oil tanker car. Other cars were another story altogether - grain, molten sulphur, coal, sand, shot, slugs ... and potash was the worst.

Garnet

I have a set of Popular Science hard bound home improvement books from the 60's that I just can't get rid of because of all the hilarious stuff in them. Much concerning the type of items posted here. Their a hoot to read through every now and then because of the recommended "tricks" you wouldn't want to get caught doing today.

the methane expelled from the eco nazi's from all the green vegi's they eat is also polluting the earth.
Solar powered clothes drier, I can't believe the folks are to dumb to catch on to that! Sheesh.
If we ourselves exist, we pollute to some point.It is inevitable. Just think of all the septic tanks on the earth,and those outhouses.

I always smile at this stuff. Be a good steward of the planet, but that can mean many different things to different people. I have dumped and seen much oil hit the ground until the movement. I often like to throw out "dilution is the solution to pollution". While that has a place, it is not always a good answer as it can imply polluting is OK as long as it can be diluted. This is not in the spirit of the agreement. I have to admit when seeing solid waste in large quantity from the masses it can get your attention as to the problem due to volume. It is a real problem with large population and out of sight our of mind may not always be OK. On a farm or large acreage doing this stuff in relatively small quantity probably won't wreck the farm let alone ruin the world. Extremists exist on both sides of the fence and we sometimes land in the middle is my observation. Much colorful language and stories come from getting to the middle so it can be sort of fun if you are in the middle. I like the solar dryer solution-- not many concepts are new when you think about, we just keep trying to improve the efficiency of old concepts.

What was that saying- pee in the ocean every little bit helps. Maybe that is raising the ocean temperatures contributing to warming.....

Another observation from a construction perspective- if it can save money, then it tends to get implemented, although slowly in this industry at times. We have found that recycling is cheaper on a project level and therefore we do it. Being green tends to be secondary, though it is a good side affect. As to carbon footprint of recycling, that is a different calculation.

I wanted to buy some used railroad crossties to make a retaining wall. I went on-line to see about what they would cost and where I might get some, etc. I stumbled upon some discussion forum where someone was all up in arms about using creosote ties for landscaping and how it violated some federal law and so on and so on. One guy said it couldn't be against the law as Home Depot or Lowes or someone was selling them. The other guy swore it was and said he was going to report them for selling them. And to top it all off....Some other guy gets on there talking about how he had just bought a new home and the prior owner had landscaped with crossties and was looking for some hazmat removal company to come out and remove them for him. I really could not believe what the heck I was reading! If the guy had been closer, I would have contacted him about doing the removal for him and then using the money to buy the rest of my crossties.

Used oil is probably "eaten" by microbes in the soil. I once, years ago poured used auto oil in to a hole in the ground. Next year, i was digging in the same spot. The oil was replaced by white material, the result of microbes using the oil as "food." The "waste" from out houses is much the same as what is spread on fields from the barn. It returns to the earth and out again as new plant growth.

If you can ever get a sense of "that guy" being "in the house", just pipe off to a hip friend
about looking for tires to burn, as the spraying for frogs has not killed them, so now your new
plan is to burn tires in the grassy areas where the frogs are to get the job done. See where
that goes !

About ten years ago I had a dipsh!t "activist" neighbor ... nice enough guy, until one day I
found a fat wad of papers in a heavy plastic bag stuck under the driver's side windshield
wiper of my work truck. In it was a letter from an attorney threatening legal action, and then
a wad of documents about the burning of preservative solution pressure treated wood. I kept
my wood stacks along the alley, but nowhere in the stacks could I find a single piece of PT
wood. So, I went over and had a little "chat" with my spineless worm of a neighbor about his
"package" and intent.

I asked him to point out the offending wood and upon walking over for a look, he said "All
that !" with a wave of his hand. What he was looking at was untreated 2x6 decking and its
accompanying 2x12 framing from a deck I had demolished. What a moron. I softly suggested
that a concerned neighborly chat BEFORE doing all the work to put together that packet might
have saved him a bunch of time and money and got him on to dealing with actual problems
being solved, rather than just making himself look like an incompetent troublemaker.

A fair chunk of the world's problems would be solved if people were too busy working to go
looking for problems to solve, you know ?