Lately, the province seems to have been undergoing quite a bit of progress in terms of its recycling services. Under the newly expanded product management program, Saskatchewan will be able to recycle more petroleum products, including antifreeze.
The new regulations were passed at the beginning of January, but will only begin on April 1. The purpose of them will be to help the environment and make it easier and safer for individuals to dispose of the toxic waste.
"Aligning with Saskatchewan's Plan for Growth, the expanded recycling program helps to prevent the illegal dumping of hazardous materials and extend the life of our municipal landfills," said Environment Minister Ken Cheveldayoff in a government news release.
The new program charges users of these petroleum products an environmental handling fee that will include the cost of recycling it.
Prior to these regulations, individuals or companies could call for a collector to come and pick up their antifreeze.
However, petroleum products like antifreeze didn't have enough of a market value and so it had no return incentives, unlike used oil. Thus, it often cost places such as garages quite a bit more to dispose of antifreeze compared to the used oil.
"Over the period of time since 1997, we became aware of three particular problems," said Phil Wrubleski, executive director for Saskatchewan Association for Resource Recovery Corp. (SARRC). "Antifreeze was being discarded, reused by farmers who put it into their sprayers to keep things from freezing up, or put into used oil."
Of these three problems, two are hazardous for the environment and one is financially costly.
"Antifreeze is toxic and can be dangerous to farm animals and pets," said Wrubleski. "It has a sweet taste to it and they might ingest it if it's left lying on the ground."
Then there are a few local garages that have their used antifreeze picked up by farmers. Normally, this wouldn't too much of a problem, except that the antifreeze used by cars is toxic to the environment.
"If car antifreeze is used for sprayers, it could damage the components in the sprayer," said Curtis Hergott, the shop foreman for Hergott Farm Equipment Ltd. "The antifreeze is put into the liquid plumbing and the spray comes out of the nozzles. If there's buildup in the machine itself, it might get mixed into the water."
In other words, if the sprayers aren't flushed out properly, the toxic antifreeze could leak into the herbicides and pesticides that get sprayed onto fields. It's why Hergott recommends RV antifreeze, because it's non-toxic.
Then there's the third problem of mixing in antifreeze with the used oil. Since there are return incentives on used oil, it's the cheaper of the two products to dispose of.
"For garages, truckers, and farmers, it was very simple to put the antifreeze in with the used oil," said Wrubleski. "It was essentially getting a free ride with the oil."
According to Wrubleski, used antifreeze that's collected is usually sent to processing facilities in Ontario, British Columbia, the state of Washington, and Indiana. It goes through a bunch of processes and comes out clear. It can even be recycled over and over again. However, when it gets put in with the used oil, it no longer goes through that system.
"The used oil is still usable, but the only issue is that the people who process it had to go to extra expense to process the extra materials out," said Wrubleski.
While Wrubleski identified this last issue as one of the three particular problems, Humboldt REACT general manager Wendy Yaworski said it wasn't an issue. According to her, antifreeze has only been found in the used oil in trace amounts.
"Very little antifreeze goes through used oil," she said. "We have site operators at the landfills that watch what gets put into it and visually inspect it."
While there may only be trace amounts going into the landfill in Wendy's jurisdiction, it still happens. Some local garages such as Jansen Services produce so little antifreeze that neither they nor the collector find anything wrong with mixing it with the used oil.
"I don't mind a little in my tank," said Darrell Fidelack, the gentleman who picks up the used oil for Jansen Services. "I'm allowed a little bit and I get docked if I have too much, but I don't encourage it. I literally have almost none."
According to Elmer Kimzel, owner of Jansen Services, it would be surprising if they maxed out at five gallons of antifreeze in a year. Fidelack comes about twice a year to empty the 100-gallon tanks, which means at most he's taking in about two and a half per cent of antifreeze each visit.
According to Blair Dueck, a manager at Envirotec Services Ltd. (a used oil collector), if antifreeze is getting mixed in with used oil, it's not to a noticeable degree. Then again, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
"I wouldn't be surprised if some people did," said Dueck. "It's a proprietary industry though."
Despite this, Dueck says it's good thing if antifreeze is getting recycled and reused. It's better for the environment and saves more energy, but only if it's done properly. Currently, other garages either pay to have their antifreeze collected, have farmers pick it up, or they reuse it without processing.
"We keep the antifreeze we recover in a storage container," said an employee of Dube Garage who didn't want to give her name. "We keep it and reuse it in the shop if it's good."
Regardless of whether or not trace amounts of petroleum products such as antifreeze were being dumped in with the used oil, it's a problem that should be fixed with the new regulations. By including the cost of recycling with the purchase of the petroleum products, users will no longer have to worry about extra costs for disposal.
