page_title: Environmental impact of the petroleum industry
section_title: Waste oil
hierarchical_section_title: Environmental impact of the petroleum industry / Local and regional impacts / Waste oil
caption_attribution_description: English: Oil being drained from a GMC Sport Utility Vehicle.
context_page_description: Petroleum has many uses, and the environmental impact of the petroleum industry is correspondingly extensive and expansive.
  Crude oil and natural gas are primary energy and raw material sources that enable numerous aspects of modern daily life and the world economy.
  Their supply has grown quickly over the last 150 years to meet the demands of rapidly increasing human population, creativity, and consumerism.
  Substantial quantities of toxic and non-toxic waste are generated during the extraction, refinement, and transportation stages of oil and gas.
  Some industry by-products, such as volatile organic compounds, nitrogen & sulfur compounds, and spilled oil can pollute air, water, and soil at levels that are harmful to life where improperly managed.Climate warming, ocean acidification, and sea level rise are global changes enhanced by the industry's emissions of greenhouse gases like methane and micro-particulate aerosols like black carbon.
  Among all human activities, fossil-fuel extraction is the largest contributor to the ongoing buildup of carbon compounds in the earth's biosphere.
context_section_description: Waste oil is oil containing not only breakdown products but also impurities from use. Some examples of waste oil are used oils such as hydraulic oil, transmission oil, brake fluids, motor oil, crankcase oil, gear box oil and synthetic oil. Many of the same problems associated with natural petroleum exist with waste oil. When waste oil from vehicles drips out engines over streets and roads, the oil travels into the water table bringing with it such toxins as benzene. This poisons both soil and drinking water. Runoff from storms carries waste oil into rivers and oceans, poisoning them as well.
caption: Waste oil in the form of motor oil
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