Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 22:17:51 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: what to do with old coolant?
In-Reply-To: <002d01c71758$32a3b960$3c589904@gpa207joel>
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Went to East Tenn. State U. at Johnson City, TN for a time. Studied
Public Health. Made a field trip to the waste water treatment plant.
Interesting. All the waste water from the surrounding area was processed
there. Within twenty four hours or less, all water coming in - and it's
contents - had been processed. Solids were removed, filter pressed, and
then taken to a burn plant where the solids were burned. what was left
was fly ash. A gritty substance that was used with cement to make
concrete blocks for construction. The organics that were saved were
dried, bagged, and shipped out as fertilizer. The water was after being
treated with chlorine, was returned to the river near by - 97% pure. The
remaining residuals - that 3% - required "tertiary treatment" which was
way to expensive. Never did learn what was in that last 3%. I just know
it went down river to the next town - Elizabethton, TN, where the river
water - with it's %3 tertiary contaminants - was taken in great
quantities iinto the water treatment plant there and distributed to the
community for drinking purposes and others.
Never wanted to move to Elizabethton.
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
joel walker wrote:
>> Once I took it to a garage that had one of those pressure/vaccum
>> coolant
>> exchange systems. The old antifreeze was simply collected in their
>> holding system for disposal along with their other liquids like oil,
>> brake fluid, etc, etc, etc.
>
> this is the quickest and usually the easiest method of getting the old
> used coolant out of your garage. i use the Jiffy-Lube or Presto-Chango
> or whatever is nearby ... ask first, though. most of them sell the old
> coolant and oil so they don't mind at all if you come down and dump
> more coolant and oil into their storage tank-thingies. only thing is,
> don't expect THEM to do the dumping. you get to sit there, pouring it
> out of soda bottles or whatever you stored it in. :)
>
> but it's better than dumping it on the lawn and diluting it with
> water, and waiting for the sunshine to break it down chemically. also
> better than dumping it into the toilet and flushing it away ...
> although having worked in a sewer plant for a while, this really
> doesn't hurt anything unless an awful LOT of people do it in the same
> city on the same day. by the time household chemicals (like bleach and
> liquid plumber and such stuff as that) get to the plant, it's so
> diluted with all the water and waste that it isn't really a problem at
> all.
>
> hope it helps!
> unca joel
>
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