Industrial Waste Types

Waste Oil Collection and Disposal

Packaging Reuse collects waste oil in drums and IBCs from industrial sites across the UK, including single drums and part-loads, and tells you whether yours carries a rebate or a cost before anyone books a vehicle. There is no bulk minimum, so a site with six drums in the corner of the yard gets a straight answer where a tanker operator would turn it away.

We handle industrial process oils, coolants and oil-contaminated waste from manufacturing, engineering, chemical and plastics sites and the plant and fleet workshops inside them. We do not collect used cooking oil and we are not chasing forecourt rebate volume. Tell us the oil types and roughly what you turn over in a month, and we will tell you which side of zero you are on. Call 0161 848 0976 or get in touch.

What waste oil do we collect?

Waste oil almost never turns up as one tidy stream, and each type takes a different route:

Lubricating, hydraulic and gear oils: engine oil, hydraulic fluid and gearbox oil drained into drums or a bulk tank. Kept as single grades, these have the best chance of a genuine recycling route.
Cutting fluids, soluble oils and coolants: mostly water, so the cost tracks the oil-in-water ratio more than the litre count.
Oily residues, sludges, filters and contaminated solids: tank bottoms, settled sludge, used filters, spent absorbent and contaminated PPE. The more solid material runs through our sludge disposal service.
Oily water and interceptor waste: low in oil and high in volume, needing separation before anything is recovered or discharged.

Keep one grade per container where you can. Tip three oils into one drum and you have made a mixture nobody can code without testing it, which usually loses the recycling route and the rebate with it. Send us the oil types and a rough monthly volume, and we will tell you what each stream is worth.

How we handle your waste oil

We collect waste oil nationwide with our own local teams and one accountable contact, and there is no bulk minimum: nine drums of hydraulic oil, a part-used IBC of coolant and a pallet of oily absorbent is a normal load for us. Our environmental chemist confirms what is in the container and which route can legally take it before we quote. Practically all used oil from an industrial process is hazardous waste, so we move it on a consignment note under the Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 and carry your duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 through to treatment, with the hazardous end going through our own hazardous waste disposal service. Our permitted Trafford Park site has been licensed since the early 1980s, and we send onward loads to permitted UK facilities.

To keep your oil on the best route, keep containers closed, labelled and on secondary containment such as a bund or drip tray, as the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) Regulations 2001 expect. Call 0161 848 0976 for a quote against your oil types.

Waste oil questions

Is waste oil hazardous waste?

Waste oil from an industrial process is nearly always hazardous waste. Used oil picks up wear metals, water from condensation and additive breakdown products, enough to classify most of it as hazardous even when it looks clean. That sets the paperwork, the storage expectations and who is allowed to carry and treat it, so it moves on a consignment note with the checks that go with hazardous waste.

Can different oils go in the same drum?

Mixing oils in one drum is the most expensive habit on an oil store. Combining grades, or topping a drum up with coolant or solvent, can push a load off the recycling route and turn it into an unknown mixture that has to be characterised before it can be coded or priced. One grade per container costs nothing and protects the rebate on the clean stream.

Can waste oil be recycled, or does it just get burned?

Clean, dry, single-grade mineral oil can be recycled by re-refining, which reprocesses it back into base oil for new lubricants. Oil that is out of specification is dewatered, filtered and blended into a fuel for permitted burners, which counts as energy recovery. Emulsions, coolants and oily water go to physical and chemical treatment, and contaminated solids go to energy from waste. High water content, mixed grades and solvent or chlorinated contamination are what rule a load out of re-refining, so segregation decides how much of yours is recycled.

What EWC code applies to waste oil?

The EWC code for waste oil follows the process it came from. Common entries include 13 01 for hydraulic oils, 13 02 for engine, gear and lubricating oils, 12 01 for machining emulsions, 13 05 for separator contents, 15 02 for contaminated absorbents and 16 01 07* for oil filters. Our chemist assigns the code and raises the consignment note.

Can we book regular collections or a one-off clearance?

Packaging Reuse runs both scheduled waste oil collections and one-off clearances. A scheduled uplift suits a workshop filling drums to a steady rhythm, while a one-off clearance suits a build-up in the yard or a coolant IBC nobody else will take. Either way the consignment note travels with the load, and you can switch between the two as your volumes change.

Talk to us about the oil sitting in your yard

If your drums have been building up, a rebate quote has turned into a charge, or nobody will take the coolant IBC, start with what is in the containers. Send us the oil types, the volumes and any analysis you hold, and we will tell you what it is and how to dispose of it. Call 0161 848 0976 or get in touch with Packaging Reuse.