Green issues confront automotives industry; oil recycling options debated - includes related article on auto recycling

Discount Store News, Oct 7, 1991 by Richard Halverson

Green Issues Confront Automotives Industry

Although environmental issues associated with packaging and household cleaners are more pressing for discounters, those related to automotive parts and chemicals are also helping to make retailing life more complicated.

Used motor oil recycling, for example, is an issue that has been coming to a head for several years, said Aaron Lowe, managing director of lobbying for the Automotives Parts & Accessories Association, Landover, Md.

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency released for public comment three options regarding used motor oil, two of which would declare used oil from auto crankcases a hazardous waste. The EPA would prefer not to classify used oil as a hazardous waste, a spokeswoman said, but is under court pressure to do so. The EPA is under a court order to reach a decision by May 1992.

The APAA is launching a retailer-funded Community Coalition for Oil Recycling to lobby against a hazardous waste label and for exempting retailers' Superfund liability if they accept used oil for recycling, Lowe said. Chief Auto Parts, AutoZone and Northern Automotives are the first aftermarket retailers to pledge financial support for the coalition, he said.

Nonetheless, he predicted the EPA will hang a hazardous waste label on used oil. And he predicted more states will join Massachusetts in forcing motor oil retailers to accept used oil from do-it-yourself customers.

"Texas is talking about it," Lowe said.

If the EPA does declare used oil a hazardous waste, auto service retailers would have to pay as much as 25% more to have "hazardous" used oil hauled away, estimates Ecogard, an oil recycling subsidiary of Valvoline. Oil retailers would be even more reluctant to accept used oil for recycling for fear of taking on Superfund liability.

Over the past several years, G.I. Joe's, Wilsonville, Ore., Meijer, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Kmart (in Michigan stores) have dropped oil recycling because of concern about Superfund liability.

And since a hazardous waste label would curtail do-it-yourself oil recycling, the EPA then might have to issue regulations forcing those who sell oil to accept used motor oil for recycling. The EPA estimates that only 10% of oil sold to DIY customers is recycled.

Faced with prospects of mandatory recycling, a number of retailers already have jumped into the troubled waters of recycling the estimated 200 million gallons of motor oil that do-it-yourselfers now pour down the sewer or dump into the garbage.

Those include Chief Auto, Dallas, which took an early lead in generating customer goodwill with its recycling program, and Northern Automotive, Phoenix, which engaged the services of Ecogard to collect used oil now at 362 of 750 stores.

Last month, Northern Automotive rolled out oil recycling to 282 stores, including all of its Kragen stores in California and Autoworks stores in Ohio.

Wal-Mart was testing oil recycling, using Ecogard collection services, at Bentonville and Rogers, Ark., and its two stores in Joplin, Mo., but has put the program on hold while solving instore problems.

In addition, chains that offer oil change service, such as Kmart auto service centers, Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack, and Valvoline's Rapid Lube Centers, also accept used oil from DIY customers.

Although oil recycling promises to be the messiest issue, retailers also must devote managerial effort to lead-acid batteries, tire disposal taxes, state and federal laws on Freon air conditioning gas sales and recycling and even anti-freeze recycling for chains offering radiator service in California.

"Environmental issues are forcing retailers to keep more records and become more careful about storing auto chemicals," Lowe said. "They must be more alert and responsible."

While that "takes a lot of staff time," Lowe said, "it presents opportunities for building customer good will."

Chief Auto, which already is spending $6,000 a month on oil recycling at just 200 of its 522 stores, "is luring customers in" with the program, Lowe said.

Environmental issues connected with automotives are less of a concern to the International Mass Retail Association than broader issues such as so-called "Drano" taxes and labeling requirements for household cleaners, said Robin Lanier, senior lobbyist.

With the exception of used oil, which presents a more difficult regulatory problem, "automotive issues are easy to deal with," Lanier said.

"They don't present an undue burden, compared to other stuff coming down the pike," such as laws on packaging, Lanier said.

Packaging affects an entire store and "amounts to a huge issue that causes hysteria," Lanier said. Problems with automotives are confined to a small segment of the business "and pale in comparison with other environmental issues."

On oil recyling, though, "discounters sense that the states are coming after them," Lanier said.

Massachusetts is now enforcing a 1978 law that requires any retailer that sells motor oil to accept used oil. Some drug stores and supermarkets have now stopped selling motor oil there.