[Shop-talk] What to do with oily rags?

[Randall]

> Anyway, as for me, I just wash them in my home
> washing machine.  I have never had a problem with any carryover into
> the next load, 

Hmm, what brand of detergent do you use?  I pretty much always get some
portion of black crud plated onto the inside of the drum ... what I've been
looking for is a solution that prevents that.

Have not tried Lestoil, but I will (if the new wife lets me experiment with
"her" machine <G>).

> If your local hazardous waste program takes your rags, it would be
> interesting to know what they do with them.

I'd guess they burn them, with a suitable stack scrubber to hopefully keep
most of the heavy metals out of the air.  The stuff that gets scrubbed out
probably does wind up back in the ground (which after all is where it came
from), hopefully such that it won't leak into drinking water in the future.

But since the EPA doesn't classify oily rags as hazardous waste (even when
the oil is used), perhaps they do just dump them in the landfill anyway.

Randall