Oil recycling

Your business may store waste oil on site, before it is collected by a waste contractor, or in England, Northern Ireland and Wales you can reuse it as a fuel in small waste oil burners (SWOBs). Businesses that use SWOBs include garages, vehicle dismantlers and metal finishing workshops.

Oils you can burn in SWOBs include engine oil, diesel and central heating oil.

Waste catering oils can be reprocessed into biofuels such as biodiesel.

What you must do

Authorisations to operate

In England, Northern Ireland and Wales, most oil recycling sites, and sites handling, storing or burning oil using SWOBs, require a Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permit.

In Scotland, if you use SWOBs you require a PPC Part A permit. You must contact your environmental regulator before you burn any oil.

As a general guide, in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, if you produce more than 5000 litres of biodiesel from waste catering oils, your business is likely to require a PPC permit.

In Scotland, if you carry out transesterification of waste catering oils up to 200 tonnes per year, non-commercially and not on an industrial scale, you do not require a PPC Part A permit. Contact SEPA to check whether you qualify for this exemption.

You must dispose of all waste ash from SWOBs regularly, using sealed, dust tight plastic bags to contain the ash throughout collection, storage, transportation and disposal

If you store, handle or treat waste catering oils or vegetable oils, you must comply with the Animal by-Products Regulations. You must store and treat waste catering oils separately from all other wastes. You must only store, treat or reprocess waste catering oils on waterproof, weatherproof surfaces which are housed under cover, and which animals, including birds, cannot access.

Hazardous / special waste

Waste oils are classified as hazardous/special waste. You must follow regulations for dealing with hazardous/special waste. You must not dispose of oil at a landfill that is not registered to receive hazardous/special waste.

You must not dispose of waste oil into any skip or waste bin. This would contaminate all the waste within the skip, which you would then have to treat as hazardous/special waste. This could greatly increase your waste disposal costs.

Storage

You must not mix waste oil with any paints or solvents. You must not burn paint or solvents in your SWOB. Do not pour oil into a drain, or allow it to contaminate any land, ground or surface waters, (eg streams, rivers or burns) or air. Locate your storage facilities and SWOB as far from watercourses as possible.

You must prevent ethanol, methanol or sodium hydroxide used in the transesterification process for waste catering oils from causing any land, water or air pollution. Store all chemicals separately, as far from watercourses as possible, in secure, labelled, waterproof and leakproof drums.

You must ensure all waste glycerol and filters are reused, recycled or disposed of by a licensed waste management company.

In England and Scotland, if you store any kind of oil on your premises then you may need to comply with the oil storage regulations.

In Northern Ireland and Wales you should still consider meeting the requirements of the oil storage regulations. This will help you to prevent water pollution, which is an offence under other legislation.

Oil storage

PPG 2 Above ground oil storage tanks (Adobe PDF - 274KB)

If you use a vapourising burner, you must inspect your smoke emissions weekly.

Oil filters

You must ensure that you remove all waste oil from oil filters before you send the remaining metal for reprocessing. You must treat all waste oil filters and waste oil as hazardous/special waste.

Ensure that you do not make any discharge to public sewers, surface waters or groundwater without consulting the appropriate regulator. To make a discharge without a consent or appropriate authorisation may be an offence and could lead to enforcement action.

Trade effluent - discharges to sewers

Water pollution

Good practice

Ensure your burner is operating as efficiently as possible, by checking for leaks in seals where air might leak into the burner. Any sudden increases in the amount of oil you use may indicate leaks in seals or your storage tanks.

Further information