Earn Profit When You Recycle Used Oil Filters

One of the hardest things about working with used oil filters isn’t the actual “work” involved in draining oil and safely collecting it. It’s reviewing the ledger and seeing how much you’re spending on oil filter collection and disposal fees. If you improperly dispose of oil filters, your shop is charged additional fines and penalty fees. Tragically, this causes some businesses to shut down completely, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Knowing the law always works to your advantage, and in this case, the law states that used oil filters that are filled with oil and sludge are hazardous waste. That means special means of collection and disposal must be undertaken. (Special is code for “expensive.”) However, there’s a loophole: if you remove enough of the residual oil, your oil filters will be classified as scrap metal. In other words, as long as the proper steps are taken, used oil filters can be recycled. Plus, that old oil can be easily repurposed in a variety of ways to save you money. Some shops use oil-based heaters, meaning the oil they collect provides a free supply of heat for as long as they need it.

Gravity-draining and hot-draining

Because of how much oil remains in used filters after gravity-draining, oil filters drained this way no longer qualify as harmless and recyclable scrap; hazardous waste and recycling companies don’t collect used oil filters that have been gravity-drained. Once upon a time, poking a hole in the oil canister was enough. Not anymore. Even “hot-draining,” a draining technique that removes oil at or near engine temperatures, is no longer a sufficient means to remove used engine oil.

Oil filter crushers

That’s where oil filter crushers come in. Not only is it possible to completely crush oil filters and recycle the remaining scrap metal, the residual drained/crushed oil can be reprocessed or recycled, as well. Used oil filters contain about 10 fl. oz. of oil in them, so the gallons of used oil will add up quickly in a productive shop. That’s a long-winded way of saying a good oil filter crusher will turn your used oil filters into recyclable objects that earn you profit. Ranger is proud to offer the RP-50FC, an oil filter crusher that supplies 25 tons of force against oil filters, reducing them to 20% of their original size and squeezing out 95% of the remaining oil waste. Without a crusher, there’s no effective way to earn a profit off your oil collection efforts.

Why Ranger?

There are plenty of oil filter crushers to choose from, but what matters is how well they crush tough car and truck filters, one after the other. The RP-50FC reduces most filters to the approximate size of two hockey pucks stacked together. With crushing, you remove as much oil as possible and reduce the space those filters take up in your collection bin, meaning you collect more scrap at a time and take fewer trips to the scrap collector. All of this saves you time and money. A “discount” crusher is apt to fail, or else take forever to crush filters. Even then, it might not crush them very much, leaving behind residual oil that will disqualify your recycling efforts. Ranger Products has been making powerful oil filter crushers for years, and the RP-50FC is an extremely powerful model that will get the job done on virtually every car or truck filter in need of a good squeeze. While most shop equipment is designed to service customers’ needs, Ranger oil filter crushers are there for you, the shop owners and mechanics. If you work with used engine oil, and you’re looking to increase your bottom line quickly, you need an oil filter crusher.