Waste Oil, Filters, Plastics and Glycol: Getting Collection Right

Every producing property generates a steady trickle of waste that is not water: drained lube and waste oil, used filters, oily rags and plastics, glycol from dehydration units, and assorted containers. It is not glamorous and it is easy to let slide, which is exactly why it turns into a problem on so many leases.

The governing principle is short enough to put on a sign: keep the streams separate. Almost every expensive outcome in this area starts with two things that should have been in different containers ending up in the same one.

What an Approved Collector Takes

A collector approved to handle upstream oilfield waste will typically take, as separate streams:

• Waste oil. Used lube oil, drained crankcase oil, oil recovered from separators and tank skimmings. This has genuine value if it is clean, and a reputable collector will often pay for or credit a clean load.
• Used oil filters. Drained, and usually collected in dedicated drums or bins. Filters are steel and the metal is recoverable, which is why they are collected separately rather than simply landfilled.
• Contaminated plastics. Empty oil containers, poly totes and similar, contaminated with hydrocarbon.
• Glycol. Spent ethylene or triethylene glycol from dehydration units. It is a distinct stream with its own handling path and it should never go into the waste oil tank.
• Oily solids and absorbents. Used absorbent, oily rags, sludges.

What a collector will generally not take, or will take only under a different arrangement, includes anything hazardous, solvents, unidentified chemicals, batteries, aerosols and anything whose origin nobody can state.

Why Segregation Pays

Clean waste oil is a commodity. It can be re-refined or burned as fuel, and it has a market value that offsets collection cost.

Waste oil with solvent in it is not a commodity. It becomes a waste requiring disposal rather than a product, the price flips from a credit to a charge, and the whole container is affected, not just the portion that was contaminated. Tip a pail of unknown solvent into a full waste oil tote and you have converted a saleable asset into a disposal cost, plus whatever it takes to determine what is now in there.

The same logic applies to glycol. Kept separate it has a recovery path. Mixed into waste oil it degrades both.

This is the single highest-return housekeeping item on most leases, and it costs nothing but labelling and discipline.

Setting Up a Lease So This Works

• Separate, clearly labelled containers for each stream, in a designated area rather than scattered around the pad. Labels should say what goes in, not just what the container is.
• Containment under liquid containers. A tote of waste oil sitting directly on gravel is a release waiting to happen. See our containment guide.
• Lids and covers. Open filter bins collect rain and snow, and you then pay to have water hauled as oily waste.
• Drain filters before they go in the bin. A drained filter is a filter; an undrained one is a liquid waste in a steel casing.
• Keep the manifests. The record of what left the lease and where it went is part of your obligation, not just the collector's.
• Brief anyone who visits. Most contamination comes from a contractor putting something in the nearest container rather than the right one.

The Collection Visit

A collection unit arrives, verifies what is there against what was expected, pumps liquids and loads solid streams, and leaves you with documentation. Smaller properties are typically serviced by a modest vacuum or tanker unit, sometimes a few cubic metres of capacity, on a scheduled or on-call basis; larger volumes and longer hauls use larger equipment.

If a collector declines something, get the reason in writing. It is nearly always characterisation, and knowing which container is the problem means you can fix it rather than guessing.

Your Obligations as a Generator

The generator is responsible for knowing what the waste is, storing it appropriately, handing it to a party approved to receive it, and keeping the documentation. That responsibility is not transferred simply by getting the material off the lease.

The requirements sit principally in the AER's oilfield waste management directive. As with everything on this site, check the current version rather than relying on this summary. Our regulatory overview sets out the broader framework.

Common Questions