Article Contributed on: 1/2/2009 8:54:50 AM
The city of Northglenn has always encouraged residents to recycle. Recycling conserves precious natural resources, reduces the volume of trash sent to the landfill and helps keep operating costs low.
But did you know that Northglenn uses recycled motor oil to heat buildings?
For the past nine years, the city has been heating two shop buildings with used motor oil. These buildings are an equipment storage/electro-mechanical building at the Northglenn Water Treatment Plant and the city's fleet maintenance shop at the Maintenance and Operations Facility.
Servicing Northglenn's fleet of approximately 250 vehicles and pieces of equipment produces a lot of used oil. As a result of these operations, the city is considered a waste oil generator by the state and is eligible to burn the used oil as a heat source.
The Solid Waste Division also provides curbside collection of used motor oil for residential trash customers.
In 1999, the city purchased and installed two EPA-approved oil burning furnaces and oil storage tanks.
The equipment storage building has a 320,000 BTU furnace and the fleet service building unit is rated at 500,000 BTU.
Filtered oil is pumped from the tanks to the furnace, where it is atomized under air pressure and ignited.
The heat produced by these units is estimated to have supplied 40 percent of the heating needs at the equipment storage building and virtually 100 percent of the heating requirements for the fleet service building.
The furnaces are estimated to have paid for themselves in the first four years of operation and it continues to save taxpayer dollars every month of operation.
The furnaces are capable of burning No. 1 and No. 2 fuel oil, motor oil, automatic transmission fluid, hydraulic oil and gear oil as long as it is mixed not to exceed 50 SAE.
Oils containing contaminants such as antifreeze, gasoline, naptha, chlorinated cleaning solvents or oil additives cannot be used.
The Solid Waste Division will collect up to five gallons of used motor oil per week from eligible residences.
Oil needs to be placed in clear plastic one-gallon containers with the resident's address clearly marked on the containers. Used and rinsed one-gallon milk jugs work well for this purpose.
Since a lot of Northglenn residents prefer to "do-it-yourself" and do their own oil changes on their personal vehicles, RV's, boats and off-road equipment, this is a win-win situation for both residents and the city.
If you have any questions regarding waste oil disposal, please contact the Solid Waste Division at 303-450-4004.