Rancid Oils disposal

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

Petraji

Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2014
Messages
21
Reaction score
10
Location
Pennsylvania
I checked repeatedly for a thread with this concern. Does anyone know how to dispose of oils that are rancid - or just plain OLD? I have remnants of olive, canola, various herb infused oils and I need to get rid of them - without damaging the environment. Please?
 

lsg

Staff member
Admin
Moderator
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
16,410
Reaction score
7,316
We have a gravel driveway, if you have such a thing, you could just pour the oil on that. It would be no worse than the county oiling our roads every fall.
 

DeeAnna

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
14,327
Reaction score
21,962
Location
USA
You might ask at a restaurant if you can dispose of your oil in their used oil container.
 

Hendejm

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2018
Messages
1,043
Reaction score
855
Location
Orlando,Fl
According to the interwebs:

Vegetable oils, such as canola or olive oil, are compostable in small quantities. Oil can also be used to kill weeds; just place it in a spray bottle and spray those unruly nuisances away. It's like killing two birds with one stone.

I like the idea of using it to kill weeds! Much better than - commercial weed killer like roundup!
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2017
Messages
2,223
Reaction score
2,179
Location
Australia
I checked repeatedly for a thread with this concern. Does anyone know how to dispose of oils that are rancid - or just plain OLD? I have remnants of olive, canola, various herb infused oils and I need to get rid of them - without damaging the environment. Please?

How much oil are you looking to dispose of? Under a litre and I'd be considering finding a composting method (driveway, fenceline, weeds, paper soak and into compost system etc.). Oil breaks down fairly readily in small amounts - as part of composting, treat it as the "green" component, and add dry matter like leaves or compost safe paper.

@Hendejm, that works best on broad leaf weeds, and the underside needs to be "painted" as well. Funny enough, a little soap helps it stick (a small amount of potassium soap would be better than sodium soap - the result will end up feeding the soil). The oil works by blocking up the "breathing holes" of the plant, so the whole plant, including underneath of every leaf, needs doing at once (here, in Summer, the plant also gets burnt!). Add flooding the roots as well and the oxygen cycle is interrupted - it takes a little while for the anaerobic soil bacteria to re-colonize if you do the root flooding step, so it's a sometimes treatment ;).

Over a litre and I'd be considering DeeAnna's suggestion (or talk to the local waste processing plant, if they allow public access where you are?).
 

kayak1987

Active Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2018
Messages
29
Reaction score
25
Location
italy
Why not to make....................... SOAP! :D
Maybe rancid oils are not good to make those superfatted cold process soaps but if you use the "good old" method, you can still get a good soap for washing stuffs

You need to slowly heat the oil to boiling point, in this way you will make a first "rectification" of volatile bad smelling compounds (if it smells, it flies) cool down
Then you make the saponification in salty water (30% brine) with extra water and extra lye (water:eek:il 3:1 and 20% extra lye) all cold at first, adding the water-salt-lye solution little by little
then gently heating to boiling for a couple of hour at least, mixing well whit a whisk.
the soap will came up, while impurities remains in the water and remaining volatile bad smelling compounds flies away
then you take out the soap and repeatedly wash in new saturated brine 2 or 3 times brine:soap 1:1 until it is no more alkaline.

the process is a little bit more tricky maybe but gives you a pure soap, whitout glyceryn, something like the one used for washing machine powder
 
Top