Synthetic Oil: More Eco-friendly?

Well, in a word, yes synthetic oil IS more eco-friendly and I’ll explain why. There are several articles circulating on the internet that dismiss the advantage of using synthetic oil to minimize your impact on the environment.

While it is true that used synthetic oil, if improperly disposed of, is just as damaging as any oil, there are advantages of using synthetic oils.

Synthetic Oil and extended drain intervals greatly reduce your output of used oil.

Big traditional oil companies are the main proponents of 3,000 mile oil changes. The reason is simple; they sell more oil that way. However, this also creates a huge amount of used oil, much of which is not properly disposed of. It’s estimated that unnecessary oil changes create an extra 300 – 400 MILLION gallons of used oil a year, costing consumers around 1.5 BILLION dollars a year.

Lets do some simple math; assume a average car, driving 15,000 miles a year. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume it takes 6 quarts of oil to change oil. Now, with a 3,000 mile oil change, that’s 5 oil changes a year. That means you will create 5×6 quarts of used oil per year, meaning 30 quarts a year. That’s 7 1/2 gallons a year. Now, if you used an extended drain oil from Amsoil like  0W-30 Signature Series, you would only change oil once a year, creating 1 1/2 gallons of used oil.

So we can see that moving to a quality synthetic oil like Amsoil can reduce the used oil generated by one car by 6 gallons a year. There are about 300 million cars registered in the US today.  It’s easy to see that moving to extended drain intervals and quality synthetic oil could save millions of gallons of waste oil per year in the US alone.

In conclusion, synthetic oil can claim to be more eco-friendly simply because it gives us a way to greatly reduce amount of used oil we generate.

Reduce Dependency on Foreign Oil

Another side effect of extended drain intervals would be the reduced demand for foreign oil. We’ve shown it would be easy to reduce US oil consumption by 600 million to 1.2 billion (or more) gallons of oil per year. Taking that amount of oil out of the demand market in the US would mean we would have to import that much less.

If you want to do you part to reduce your output of used oil, and reduce our dependency on foreign oil, you would use synthetic oil and extended drain intervals. Please request a free Amsoil catalog.

Below is part of the original article circulating on the Internet….

Synthetic oils are not derived from crude petroleum, but rather are synthesized and artificially created. If they are dumped down the drain after use in an automobile, they can be just as harmful to the environment as conventional oil. The difference, then, is their longevity and method of creation.

Because they are not pulled out of the earth and refined industrially, they begin their life without having any initial environmental impact. And because they improve engine performance, increase gas mileage, and offer extended oil drain capability–meaning synthetic oil doesn’t have to be changed as often–they reduce the environmental impact even further. Thus, it is not that they necessarily possess inherent “green” qualities. Their creation and use provides a reduced footprint, quite a bit less than conventional oil.

Synthetic motor oil is more eco-friendly than conventional oil for the reasons that it is not extracted from the earth, lasts longer when in use and improves fuel economy. Indirectly, it is a greener choice than conventional oils

via Is Synthetic Oil More Eco-Friendly than Regular Oil? – carsdirect.com.