That's 24 times the amount of oil spilled off Alaska's coast by the Exxon Valdez oil tanker in 1989. It's a shame because recycling is easy and because a used oil recycling network already exists. Automotive service centers and manufacturing industries have been recycling used oil for decades. Some burn their own used oil for heat. Most, however, are served by haulers who pick up used oil and deliver it to processing plants that clean it up for reuse as a fuel at asphalt batch plants, limekilns and other industrial furnaces.
Used oil has high energy content and requires minimal processing for reuse as an industrial fuel.
A major regional refinery also takes used oil from throughout Wisconsin. The refinery, located in East Chicago, removes contaminants from up to 90 million gallons of oil each year. The finished product is a motoroil that is as good as that which can be made out of crude oil. Refining can recycle oil again and again, compounding the savings. Use a funnel to avoid spills.