You Should Do This With Used Antifreeze When Disposing of It

In this article, we will cover draining and replacing your antifreeze or coolant and what should be done with the old coolant. Remember: never drain coolant on the ground. It’s hazardous waste. Just about everything that is drained on the ground, even a parking lot, eventually makes its way into the groundwater.

Remember: never drain coolant on the ground. It’s hazardous waste.

–Richard McCuistian, ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician

Disposing of used antifreeze can be tricky. Better equipped garages will have a coolant recycling machine that can either filter and treat the coolant for reuse in the same vehicle or simply remove the coolant so that it can be stored in a waste tank. There are companies like Safety-Kleen that collect old coolant from the shop’s waste coolant storage tank.

For the DIYer, however, there are ways to drain all the antifreeze from your radiator, as well as places to bring them to after you’ve gathered it all up. Here’s an overview of the process:

• Park your vehicle and turn off the battery.
• Wear safety equipment like gloves, masks, and goggles.
• Drain the antifreeze from your radiator and collect it with a drip pan.
• Put the antifreeze in a plastic container and bring it to a recycling facility.

For those of you who want to learn all about antifreeze, how you’re meant to dispose of it, and how facilities recycle it for future use, read on.

How to Dispose of Antifreeze Properly and Safely (Draining and Replacing Coolant)

Caution: To avoid serious burns, never open a hot cooling system. Experienced mechanics will feel the top radiator hose to see if the system has pressure before opening the cap. You should always let the engine cool before opening the filler cap.

Disable Your Vehicle

First things first, you must park your vehicle on a flat and even surface far away from other vehicles. Let the engine cool. It’s best to wait until your engine has completely cooled down before attempting to drain the antifreeze from your vehicle.

Wear Safety Equipment (PPE)

Make sure your eyes are covered and well-protected before draining your radiator. Fortunately, wearing protective equipment like goggles or safety glasses, nitrile or latex gloves, and a mask is enough to protect you from poisoning yourself.

Drain Your Radiator to Remove Antifreeze

Step 1: You have to know where the radiator drain is located, and sometimes it can be in a difficult place to access. Most modern radiators have a plastic drain cock with a nipple on which you can slide a hose to prevent the coolant from splattering all over the place as it runs across other components below the drain.

Step 2: Place a drip pan underneath the drain valve and insert a hose on the drain if it’s like the one in the photo. The hose should be long enough to divert all the coolant into the pan, and if you let the end of it rest in the pan, there’ll be a lot less splattering.

Step 3: Crank the valve open. Once the valve is open, the antifreeze will continuously drain onto the pan. If it doesn’t and the coolant is old and rusty, the drain might be clogged and you may need to entirely remove the drain valve from the fitting, which makes a larger drain orifice.

Step 4: Drain all the coolant, then close the valve. 

The old coolant will be in your drain pan unless you used the hose to drain it into a five gallon bucket.

Pro Tips are nuggets of information direct from ASE-certified automobile technicians working with CarParts.com, which may include unique, personal insights based on their years of experience working in the automotive industry. These can help you make more informed decisions about your car.

Pro Tip: Most cooling systems hold more than a gallon of coolant/water mix, so you won’t get it all in a single gallon jug.

Step 5: If you drained the antifreeze into a drain pan, use a funnel to transfer it to a secure plastic container. This will make it easier to transport, and you won’t have to run the risk of spilling it on yourself on your way to delivering it to a recycling facility. 

Step 6: You can use paper/disposable towels to absorb all the antifreeze from the floor by laying them out across your garage.

Once all the antifreeze is absorbed, you can store all the used towels in a garbage bag with the rest of your trash.

Deliver the Antifreeze to a Recycling Facility or Waste Disposal

With your antifreeze stored in secure plastic containers, your next step should be to mark them with a tag. Write down the date you drained the antifreeze and include the name of the antifreeze as well. This way, employees at the recycling or waste disposal facility will be able to deal with the contents properly.

Only pure antifreeze can be recycled, so it’s important to record any coolants that were used, or any contaminants like fuel that might have gotten in. This is because both coolant and contaminants can change the chemical composition of the antifreeze.

Once you’re done marking your antifreeze, you can deliver it to the nearest recycling facility. Conversely, if there’s no recycling facility within your area, you can bring it to the nearest waste disposal.

Antifreeze Recycling: How is it Done?

Recycling facilities and service stations have specialized machines designed to remove glycol from antifreeze. When you bring used antifreeze from your vehicle to these facilities, they pour it into the machine to purge the glycol from it. New chemicals are mixed into the antifreeze to make it reusable once again.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work if the antifreeze has been contaminated by other chemicals such as fuel and metal. The recycling machine fails to separate all the unnecessary chemicals, which means the tainted antifreeze is ultimately unusable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You Pour Antifreeze Down the Drain?

Under no circumstances should you pour antifreeze down the drain. This is because antifreeze contains all sorts of toxic chemicals like ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, and methanol.

Can You Pour Antifreeze Down the Toilet?

Much like how you can’t pour antifreeze down the drain, you can’t pour antifreeze down the toilet either. Pouring antifreeze down the drain means poisoning the water with chemicals. These chemicals are then released into the sewer system—the water of which goes to wastewater facilities where it is treated so that it may be repurposed.

Where is the Best Place to Dispose of Coolant?

If you want to know where and how to dispose of coolant properly, the best places to get rid of it are service stations, recycling facilities, and auto shops. More often than not, these facilities will drain the coolant for you. You can search online for the nearest place in your area that will dispose of used coolant and other hazardous materials.