What are you doing with your workshop waste?
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• Antifreeze manufacturers have swung sharply towards the introduction of propylene glycol-based antifreezes in recent years, although cheaper ethylene glycol-based products are still available.
Ethylene glycol is poisonous. Antifreeze mix containing it should either be taken away by a registered waste carrier and disposed of at an authorised site, or recycled in the workshop. One of the leading manufacturers of antifreeze recycling equipment is Finish Thompson (FTI) of the US. It is represented in Britain by Overton UK (01522 723773).
Its machines use a distillation process to recover ethylene glycol from the water drained out of a truck's radiator. Mix it with reinhibitor additive and you have a reconstituted antifreeze, says FTI.
Propylene glycol antifreeze is not as toxic as the ethylene glycol-based alternative and won't fur up radiators to the same extent. But that's not to say that it's entirely harmless, warns antifreeze maker Comma.
Tip it into a stream and it will starve the water of oxygen and kill the fish and plant life. Again, it must be disposed of carefully or recycled. Duckhams is among those companies offering a collection/disposal/recycling service for this and other workshop wastes.
All brake fluid remains potentially hazardous, warns Ferodo, and changes in the waste regulations which came into force on 1 September 1996 mean that it must not be mixed in with waste oil. It should be stored separately for collection by a registered waste carrier for recycling by a specialist. The point industry can employ it in certain
processes, Ferodo says. Environmentally-friendly greases are available for use in chassis lubrication systems. Greenlube is probably the bestknown one, and was introduced by Groeneveld of the Netherlands five years ago.
It does not contain lead, antimony or nitrite, and British distributor Groeneveld Transport Efficiency (01509 211888) reckons that it will last up to five times as long as conventional greases in an automatic chassis lubrication system. And for once, you won't pay a financial penalty for being environment-conscious, claims Groeneveld; Greenlube costs 23 a litre trade as compared with an average 23.30 a litre for a standard chassis lube grease. Use it in a Groeneveld system and the manufacturer will extend its standard warranty from 12 months to two years.
Tecalemit argues, however, that in general biodegradeable greases cost 15-25 per% more than the standard offering, which is why it doesn't offer one. Neither does Romatic, another producer of lubrication systems.
Castrol offers biodegradeable synthetic grease under Biolube, although it is mostly intended for marine applications.