Used Oil

Author: Raj Lochan - ROSE Foundation

( Article Type: Explanation )

In South Africa, about 90 million litres of used oil is collected per annum. Unless recovered, this used oil poses a serious hazard to the environment and to the country’s groundwater resources in particular.
The South African oil industry set up a non-profit organisation called the ROSE (Recycling Oil Saves the Environment) Foundation to collect as much used oil for recycling as possible. Since the ROSE Foundation was established in 1994, it has influenced the collection of more than one billion litres of used oil.
In addition to collecting and disposing of the used oil, the ROSE Foundation also audits and inspects its collection agents to ensure high environmental standards at the various sites and depots. The ROSE Foundation is a useful Private sector case study on just how successful a self-regulated initiative in used oil collection can be.

The case demonstrates the success of good organisation and planning, and experts agree that the approach can be applied to any resource recovery initiative.