Disposing of old antifreeze?
- Thread starter DrCharles
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Ever been to a hick's yard, especially in the south? There is broken glass, nails and worse all over the place because they want to save $15-20 a month on rural trash service, so they literally trash their own place. These people could afford it, they just prefer to live in a garbage heap.
Christian9112
Full Access Member
Propylene glycol is biodegradable. people are literally smoking this stuff (vaping). I dont dump mine on the ground but on a drain. There is no Laws prohibiting you in California in disposing it this way. antifreeze got some bad rep from ethylene glycol (old school antifreeze) that will poison you. Thats why manufacturers switched to propylene glycol.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=propylene+glycol+biodegradable
Just looked up Motorcraft SCA and even thats not toxic. It's mostly sodium and potassium salts.basically fertilizer
https://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubricants.com/main/msds/us184845us.pdf
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=propylene+glycol+biodegradable
Just looked up Motorcraft SCA and even thats not toxic. It's mostly sodium and potassium salts.basically fertilizer
https://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubricants.com/main/msds/us184845us.pdf
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The_Josh_Bear
Full Access Member
Just wanted to thank you for the excellent info posted above. I knew they changed the formula to make it safer in recent years but I didnt realize propylene glycol was considered food safe by the FDA. That's quite the switch and good news for all of us.
Edit: see the other posts below, apparently most coolant is still ethylene glycol based. Including Fleet Charge that I use.
Amen
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You are spreading really bad, dishonest information.
From the following pdf:
"Many sewage treatment agencies
responsible for wastewater treatment
discourage or forbid waste antifreeze
disposal into sanitary sewers."
My guess is they don't filter/treat waste water for antifreeze so it's the same as you dumping it in the lake. You know, where your drinking water comes from and where they also probably don't filter for high amounts of antifreeze.
Stop being effing lazy and dispose of hazardous wastes properly. It's not that hard.
https://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/VSR/upload/Antifreeze-recycling02.pdf
Macrobb
Full Access Member
Also, most coolant is ethylene glycol not propylene glycol. EG is more toxic than PG by far.
PG is used as "food safe" antifreeze - used for RV water lines, in tanker trucks that use coolant for heating the tankers, and in your lettuce at Subway!
PG is used as "food safe" antifreeze - used for RV water lines, in tanker trucks that use coolant for heating the tankers, and in your lettuce at Subway!
DrCharles
Full Access Member
Prestone (green) has always been, and is still, ethylene glycol. They added a bitterant for a really unpleasant taste.
http://complyplus.grainger.com/grainger/msds.asp?sheetid=4125186
So is Peak Fleet Charge.
https://www.peakhd.com/wp-content/u...e Concentrate Antifreeze & Coolant.pdf?x38462
There are some propylene glycol based antifreezes but they are much more expensive such as Evans Waterless Coolant and "Sierra" brand.
ttman4
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I haven't popped my corn with PG yet but I been told that PG is used to pop PopCorn. Used to pop & carry over all those flavors. Give it that delightful flavor, that oily, yellow, salty buttery flavor we all like.
EG.....well we don't even want to wash our hands with it!!! Pop our corn with it, wash our hands with it & we'll wake up dead in the morning!!!
DrCharles
Full Access Member
Ethylene glycol isn't that toxic... I've practically bathed in it (accidentally) on numerous occasions while changing coolant in tractors, cars, trucks... never got the drain plug out yet without it running down my arm somehow 
And I haven't woken up dead yet!
However, drinking only about 6 oz. can kill an adult from renal failure (it forms calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys and basically destroys them) and it's also poisonous, just like our much-loved ethanol is. In fact, a useful treatment for antifreeze ingestion is to administer alcohol, because it competes with the reaction that makes the "bad stuff".
A little light reading for those interested:
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/814701-overview
And I haven't woken up dead yet!However, drinking only about 6 oz. can kill an adult from renal failure (it forms calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys and basically destroys them) and it's also poisonous, just like our much-loved ethanol is. In fact, a useful treatment for antifreeze ingestion is to administer alcohol, because it competes with the reaction that makes the "bad stuff".
A little light reading for those interested:
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/814701-overview
Christian9112
Full Access Member
Sorry. I was a little drunk last night. Anyways, antifreeze is biodegradable. both EG and PG.
Dont let your baby drink it but it does biodegrade rather quickly.
https://www.google.com/search?clien...i_9TgAhUrr1QKHb8zCLwQBQgrKAA&biw=1920&bih=944.
Dont let your baby drink it but it does biodegrade rather quickly.
https://www.google.com/search?clien...i_9TgAhUrr1QKHb8zCLwQBQgrKAA&biw=1920&bih=944.
ttman4
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Ethylene glycol isn't that toxic... I've practically bathed in it (accidentally) on numerous occasions while changing coolant in tractors, cars, trucks... never got the drain plug out yet without it running down my arm somehow
However, drinking only about 6 oz. can kill an adult from renal failure (it forms calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys and basically destroys them) and it's also poisonous, just like our much-loved ethanol is. In fact, a useful treatment for antifreeze ingestion is to administer alcohol, because it competes with the reaction that makes the "bad stuff".
A little light reading for those interested:
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/814701-overview
Well may take a few more morning to wake up dead, but I don't wash up etc with EG like I used to. & I still get it on me too!! But Ido try to be more cautious than I used to be!! I used to not worry at all about oil, grease, or EG etc, just wash up at end of day. Now I try to use mechanic or rubber gloves if possible. Already enough permanent dirt & grime under my fingernails & wrinkled hands & skint places to kill me x10!! haha My hands look like they been tattooed with grease!!
& I notice in your link above "and altered mental status" ....now I know what's wrong with me!
Seriously tho, I don't pour my EG out on the ground etc. (least not if I'm watched)
Your county wherever you live will have somewhere to take your coolant, it’s basically a requirement for them these days. I’ve bathed in all kinds of automotive fluids, and atf being the worst of them all. Once I was working on a time sensitive project that had to have a trans and engine back in the truck to drive a cross the country. Not having a lift, I was putting everything in laying on my back for a lot of the work, which generally means taking atf baths. I was wearing those atf damp clothes for around thirty hours until the truck motored home. A few days later I got a severe bubbling/boiling down my back, that was scabby and sore for about a month. Never had coolant or any other chemical do that.
Yup. They charge me a recycling fee on purchase, just like oil, so I hold them to it. 339 recycling locations for it in my province:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/...g/product-stewardship/used-oil-and-antifreeze
That said, I collect and re-use most of it. Fill or top-up a runner/beater. I don't mind having old coolant sitting in a truck over the winter. Better than cracking a block.
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