Hello ChrsLyton,
You are right about the parts stores not wanting antifreeze in with their used oil. Each store should have a
printed list of what is/is not accepted for 'oil recycling'. In general, if it's
petroleum-based it's normally alright.
(transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid, power steering fluid, gear oil.)
On the other hand, non-petroleum based brake fluid and antifreeze disrupt the recycling process. Last I knew
Safety Kleen had the contract to service the oil recycling tanks at the Advance Auto stores, and according to
their driver once the tank went past a certain percentage of non-petroleum product (that it's process could handle)
the tank went from something that could be recycled to having to be treated as hazardous waste.
(
Safety Kleen recycling 200 million gallons of oil each year.)
****
So what to do with antifreeze? After some poking around using 'antifreeze recycling' as a search term, a database
on the 'Earth911.com' came up. I tried it with my own zip code, and it correctly identified OCRRA as the hazardous waste
place for the upstate NY county I live in. (Onondaga county)
On a hunch, I loaded the 30122 zip code into this site, (
earth911.com) and it came back with the following results:
You must be registered for see images attach
That helps the residents in Fulton & DeKalb counties, but if you are in Douglas County then this is not much help.
But then I stumbled across this page from a Douglasville shop by the name of DCAC:
Douglas Country Auto Care. In it they
specifically mention antifreeze recycling:
You must be registered for see images attach
****
To recap, your question about recycling used antifreeze/coolant was timely, for I am planning on
servicing the cooling system on the chore truck in the near future, so I decided to see what was
out there to help me do right by the environment.
I'm all about driving my GMT400 as guilt-free as possible. And recycling all the fluids is the right thing
to do. If taking my used coolant to my county Hazmat location helps to keep it out of the local watershed,
then it's simply time well spent. And good on you for holding onto the used coolant while looking for
a recycling solution.
Hope one of the three choices I identified end up working out for you. Nothing looks quite as nice
as the freed up shop space where all the accumulated used coolant
used to be.
Cheers --