Why Motor Oil And Auto Batteries Are Recycled

When people change the batteries and oil in their cars they need a safe place to dispose of them. Some people pour their used oil into the ground or put their old battery in the garbage. Car, boat and motorcycle batteries are called Lead-Acid batteries. It is against the law to put lead acid batteries in the garbage because lead poisoning can cause brain damage and serious illness. When you were a baby, most of you probably had a special blood test by your doctor to check for tiny particles of lead in your blood.

Improper disposal of oil is very harmful to the environment because on Long Island, we get our drinking water from an aquifer. An aquifer is like an underground lake. Rainwater soaks deep in the ground, into the aquifer. And, just like the rainwater, oil and other pollutants can soak down into the aquifer too. So instead of polluting our drinking water, people can bring their oil, antifreeze and batteries to the Towns Recycling center at 641 New York Avenue. There those things will get recycled.

Fun Fact: Did you know that automobile batteries account for over 2/3 of the lead in our waste stream? Did you know that it takes 75 years for oil to percolate down into the aquifer. Just one gallon of oil can pollute up to 1 million gallons of drinking water.