Hazardous wastes amount generated annually

Waste oil generated from lubricants and hydraulic fluids is one of the more commonly recycled materials. Annual production of waste oil in the U.S. is of the order of 4 billion liters. Around half of this amount is burned as fuel and lesser quantities are recycled or disposed of as waste. The collection, recycling, treatment, and disposal of waste oil are all complicated by the fact that it comes from diverse, widely dispersed sources and contains several classes of potentially hazardous contaminants. These are divided between organic constituents (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons) and inorganic constituents (aluminum, chromium, and iron from wear of metal parts barium and zinc from oil additives lead from leaded gasoline). 

---