Over 5 million tonnes of lubricants are sold in Europe every year.
Of these, no more than 50% are recycled or disposed of, through the recovery of used oils. Some of these “disappearing” volumes are necessarily throw-away, due to their usage. But many other volumes take non-institutional routes and are poured into the ground or directly into the sewers, reaching the sea through the aquifers and waterways. A few cubic centimeters of lubricating oil are enough to cover hundreds of square meters of surface, poisoning the fauna and flora with the dissolved additives and preventing the normal exchange of oxygen. A greater awareness on the part of those who handle the treatment of such products is now a real necessity.
Premature replacement of oil and filters is an unjustified increase in operating costs and exposes the environment to the risk of seriously damaging oil spills. Please check the loss of fuel and lubricant in the bilge, identifying the source; safety in navigation and the prevention of mechanical damage also depend on small operations of Preventive Maintenance, such as the periodic inspections of gaskets and seals. An unwanted leak is a symptom of neglect and is an entryway for water or abrasive powders. The washing of the bilge with solvents is a way to silence your conscience, removing “the hassle ” in an elegant way, but incorporating toxic substances with other equally harmful products and without solving the source of the problem.
Under standard conditions of use, the oil/filter system of a diesel engine for leisure is able to confidently operate for about 200h. There is still the habit, a legacy of times gone by when both lubricants and the engines in which they operate did not reach today’s level of performance, of replacing oil seasonally, without paying attention to the fact that very often it has run for no more than 50h of navigation!
Perhaps it would be more appropriate to preserve the still intact charge for the following year, checking the operating conditions of your engine through a simple analysis.