|
| News | Sports |
Business | Opinions |
Columns | Entertainment |
| Science/Technology| Weather | Archives | E-mail Us |
Sunday, November 14, 1999
Recycling creates a market
Reasons to let others change your motor oil
America Recycles Day is Monday, which reminds me of a former next-door neighbor.
This neighbor was a first-rate shade-tree mechanic. He had a '68 Mustang fastback and a '70 Monte Carlo, both in pristine condition because he knew how to keep them that way. He also had a big, four-wheel-drive pickup.
One day when he was working on this pickup, we got to talking and I remarked that it sure must be easy to change the oil in that truck. Jacked up as high as it was, he could have reached the oil filter without hardly having to bend over. So, it floored me when he told me that he didn't change his own oil anymore.
One of the reasons, he said, was that he didn't have to worry about disposing of the old oil properly. The oil change place did that for him.
That's when I figured out that quick oil change was a growth industry. Here was a mechanically inclined guy, not afraid of getting his hands dirty, not changing his own oil.
DIYs and DIFMs
Nowadays, 60 percent of drivers have someone else change their oil, according to a study paid for by Jiffy Lube. It's prevalent enough that the industry has acronyms for people who change their own oil, DIYs (do it yourselfers) and those who don't, DIFMs (do it for me).
"The do-it-for-me market has increased greatly and that's why Pennzoil bought Jiffy Lube in 1990," says Frank Jeanson, senior environmental engineer for Jiffy Lube.
I recently became a DIFM.
I'll have to admit it's safer for the environment. I don't remember ever changing the oil without spilling any. (There was that time I forgot to screw in the lug nut before pouring in the new oil.) And now there's no temptation to hide the used oil with the rest of the trash - not that I'd do such a thing. It's not only illegal, but wrong.
Potential of used oil
Federal law classifies used motor oil as a hazardous waste, unless it's recycled. Also, Texas and five other states also require that the filters be recycled. Used oil can be re-refined into motor oil, or it can be turned into fuel oil or asphalt. The filters can be smelted into steel.
Both the used oil and the used filters are valuable commodities, depending on market forces, Jiffy Lube officials say. In the Northeast, the oil fetches 5 to 10 cents a gallon, Jeanson says.
Underlying benefits
John Daub, who owns seven Jiffy Lubes in Corpus Christi, Portland and Victoria, currently breaks even with recyclers, he says. They haul the oil for free because he also lets them take the filters. Otherwise, he'd have to pay to have the oil hauled. At various times, he has been paid for his used oil and he has had to pay someone to take it.
He doesn't attribute the growth trend of his industry to the oil disposal requirements. He gives most of the credit to those three well-known most important ingredients to business success: location, location, location. Only, he doesn't mean the location of his Jiffy Lubes. He means the location of oil filters on newer cars.
"The location of filters is getting more difficult to get to," he says. "Sometimes I think the engineer who designed the car never changed his own oil."
You and your oil
If you're a do-it-yourselfer, you can take your used oil to the city landfill at 7001 Ayers St. for recycling, or you can take it to any Jiffy Lube. Other quick oil change businesses will take used oil, but call first because some don't.
Tom Whitehurst
| Talk about this story
| Home |
© 1999 Caller-Times Publishing Company Corpus Christi Caller Times, a
Scripps Howard newspaper.
All rights reserved.
|
 |
 |
|
