EACH year, U.S. citizens dump more than 24,000,000 gallons of oil down sewers or into landfills. If you use petroleum oil and drain your oil every 3,000 miles, you will use about 40 quarts of oil (over 25,000 miles).

The environmental issue is often framed in the language of behavior. Are we a selfish civilization whose quest for instant gratification trashes the natural world and leaves a mess for our children? It's an argument intended to provoke guilt. And we resist guilt.

But consider this account by the New York Times, using as its source the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API): "Each year, 1.2 billion gallons of lubricating oil are used in vehicles; 600 million gallons are burned up in engines, and 600 million gallons are removed at oil change time. Drivers who change their own oil account for 350 million of the removed gallons, and they improperly discard 240 million gallons of used oil." 1

Dumping 240 million gallons of oil is nearly the same as two Exxon Valdez spills each month. Improperly dumped waste oil seeps through landfills into ground water, disrupts bacterial digestion in sewer treatment plants (causing even more pollution), and washes into lakes and harbors. And we have no confident estimate of what happens to properly discarded waste oil. In 1989, there were only four re-finers left in the U.S. They processed a total of only 50 million gallons of the 600 million gallons theoretically possible.2

Are we drowning in waste oil? Drowning is, of course, overly dramatic. But, do we have a serious problem? Are we trashing the world we leave to our children? And, most important, shouldn't we be doing something about it right now? Certainly. And the first thing we can do is not create so much waste oil to begin with

1 The New York Times, Oct. 28, 1989, 2 Hazmat World, Nov. 1989

Most automotive experts recommend drain intervals of 3,000 to 6,000 miles for petroleum motor oils. This is about 4 to 8 times shorter than AMSOIL drain intervals. Assuming you use petroleum oil, travel 25,000 miles annually, and have a 5-quart oil system, you will dump 15 to 40 quarts of used oil. That's a lot of oil. It's easy to see how the 25,000-mile/1-year drain intervals of AMSOIL can reduce your personal contribution to oil pollution. In 1985, AMSOIL introduced the TRIGARD System. This package of advanced automotive products represents the world's first and only 100,000-mile-plus oil change interval. That means no more wasted oil.

If your car goes 100,000 miles on petroleum oil, and you follow the recommended drain intervals, you will generate between 85 and 165 quarts of waste oil. That's like draining about 2 bathtubs full of dirty oil. In fact, multiply that by the 135 million registered cars (excluding trucks, buses and taxis) in the US, and you arrive at a figure between 11.4 billion and 22.3 billion quarts of waste oil over a service life of approximately 100,000 miles.

That equates to a line of semi-trucks stretching from Los Angeles, CA to Washington D.C. and back again all completely filled with 55 gallon drums of dirty oil. With the AMSOIL TRIGARD System, each registered vehicle would generate little more than a milk-jug full of used oil over 100,000-plus miles of use. That's an environmental alternative that saves you money! How can you lose?

Where Does All The Used Oil Go? 40% is dumped on the ground or down the sewer. 20% is thrown out with the trash, ending up in landfills.   6% is burned. 19% is reused for miscellaneous purposes. 14% is recycled.

As our world strengthens its environmental policies and grapples with pollution issues, the ecological wisdom of using synthetic lubricants becomes obvious AMSOIL synthetic lubricants becomes obvious. AMSOIL synthetic motor oils outlast regular petroleum-base oils by as much as eleven times. These remarkably long drain intervals help ease the world's waste-disposal problem; users of synthetics simply have much less oil and fewer plastic containers to deal with. The combined use of AMSOIL motor oil, air and oil filters and engine oil analysis has now made one-fill, zero-waste lubrication a reality.

The superior lubricity of AMSOIL products means much less friction, drag and wear on critical engine parts. The resulting improvement in fuel efficiency and reduction of emission levels contribute to the conservation of natural resources and protection of the atmosphere. Additionally, AMSOIL has made the technology of biodegradability a top research priority, with encouraging recent successes.

AMSOIL INC. is determined to meet the challenge of the lubrication industry's environmental responsibilities head on. Our long-standing quality products lead the way to a greener, healthier planet for the next generation.

Do yourself and the environment a favor, stop changing your oil so much. Save yourself time, money and aggravation, go with the leader in synthetic automotive lubrication and filtration, AMSOIL.