HDPE

Do not attempt this at home. The oil is a pollutant. The bottles must be cleaned before recycling and it takes special equipment.

I'm currently recycling used oil filters, I keep the metal parts. The paper insert is crushed and the used oil taken to my regular job where it's used for heating during the winter months. So I'm not overly concerned with the oil part of it. I've made some HDPE blanks from other containers and have to wonder if I can stabilize it myself or not. I'm wanting to try to make lumber from it, I hate the thought of all that material and residual oil going into the landfill. I have contacted a plastic recycler to see if they will buy them as I can accumulate several tons per year and almost at a dollar a pound I think it's worth looking into. But from what little information I can find I understand most places will not accept them due to an odor issue with the finished product.

OK, the residual oil seems to be the biggest obstacle then.

In India, tjey recycled plastic jugs that contained pesticide. And the recycled plastic was used to make bottles that held cooking oil. Since pesticides is very stable the pesticides leached and posited the cooking oil.

Not a good move on thief part. I have no plans to make anything that even comes close to anything that is to be consumed. My only interest is in UV stabilization at this point.

I Read that about 12-18 months ago. And just out it out there.

All big mfrs. of cooking oil use virgin plastic containers or flexible plastic bags for packing. May be you came across some small mfr. in the rural area.

It's possible, I'm searching for a link. I believe it effected a school, where it made headlines.

It's possible but not economically feasible....yet

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.highlight/abstract/7974/report/F

I'm not really looking at this as a way to start a serious business just yet. The left over oil isn't an issue for me either, I realize it wouldn't be overly bright to use such containers to hold any thing for human consumption. The oil bottles I'm talking about are allowed to drain for 24hrs. To be made into blanks for, say, sling shots the plastic would not need to be granulated nor processed much, perhaps cut in half length wise stacked up and melted in a form. Since I am already recycling used oil filters, another activity that's perhaps less than financially rewarding I have every confidence that I can handle what ever waste issues that may arise as pointed out by others. I greatly appreciate the links you shared. They were informative and helpful. However my only real concern is whether or not I can make the blanks I plan on making UV stable or not. I see 3/4" thick blanks 12"X12 selling for just shy of $17 + shipping, I feel fairly confident that on a small scale I could make money with it. But I can see other product ideas etc. however what I may be able to do may well be limited in scope by my ability or lack there of to make the HDPE UV stabilized. Those already recycling seem to be rather tight lipped about the hows and why of what they are doing and I've had little luck finding the information I need to make any kind of an informed decision.

I would think the easiest way would be to coat it with something, but then I'm not a chemist, and that's what you need....

http://polymer-additives.specialchem.com/selection-guide/uv-stabilizers-for-polyethylene/hdpe-injection-molding-grades-formulation

yea, that's my problem as well. Not certain if it would be a coating or something mixed into the plastic itself. I'll check out the links you shared, thank you!

Unless you have an extruder, it will be very difficult to mix the UV stabilizer in the plastic.

You're using black plastic, which is pretty UV stable already. Black absorbs the UV energy pretty well.

Painting something on is an option, I guess.

What do I know? You might need a coating for prolonged exposure. Grey HDPE isn't all that great outdoors.

They do make furniture out of it...outdoor furniture I'm thinking....
http://www.casabruno.com/american-homedecor/Casa-Bruno-Polywood-plastic-lumber-table-for-outdoors-garden-terrace

Looks like something that would interest me. I was thinking of trying to build myself a small deck but benches and flower planters etc all spring to mind for me. I wonder however if there is an odor present like I have read if such things should not be made from old oil bottles. I'm not for certain if there really is an odor left behind or not or if said odor would mean contamination. I'd planned on making a 12"X12" blank just to see but failed to grab my box of empty bottles from work so will have to wait till Tuesday to see. Even if there is an odor I have to wonder if perhaps shingles and such couldn't be made. I watched a video where they just threw all sorts of different plastics together, ground them up and added some sand as a binder and color and made roof tiles. They didn't mention UV stabilization though.

I may be able to add coloring at some point. For the time being I'm looking at making blanks for sling shots. I'd like to be able to make the HDPE lumber as well at some point and some other items but it may not be practical for me to do.

OK, I'm curious how you are processing this.

I don't want you to give away any trade secrets, but I was in the plastics molding industry a long time ago.

This guy says you just heat it up to about 250° and apply pressure to mold....

Aggregate and HDPE brick making...

http://www.google.com/patents/US20120047833

This guy made a new knife handle from bottle tops with a clay mold....

http://atomicshrimp.com/post/2011/06/15/Plastic-Moulding-Using-Recycled-Bottle-Tops

Here's the slingshot....

http://slingshotforum.com/topic/22723-hdpe-sheet/

That's simple enough. But, I'll bet your wife's not too happy with that.

I guess I've never considered doing that since I was spoiled by hundreds of thousands of $ worth of equipment.

No reason it won't work. But, I wouldn't try to build a house that way.

There's still the issue of outdoor use. HDPE is akin to nothing more than ultra-high molecular weight wax. That means paint won't stick very well.

You'll do fine, just take it a step at a time.

She gave me a bit of a funny look but didn't say anything at least not to where I could hear her! Lol If you let it burn there would be an aweful stink I'd imagine. Pretty sure coloring would need to added in during the melt. I figure I will take my time and build up tools and items to make as I build my knowledge base. Seems those in the know aren't overly excited to share thier knowledge so it will be trial and error and I am ok with that. Found a place that deals in UV stabilizers they claim are affordable so I will call them Tuesday and see if Thier idea of affordable matches mine.

To be honest probably more than I! :-)

Yes but, that doesn't mean that you can't do something that I've never done.

Don't stop trying. Find out for yourself if it can (or can't) be done.

Good luck.

As Lyn states, yes you can if you happen to have an extruder.

Failing that, figure out how to disperse the additives through the molten plastic by hand (I know what my wife would do if I used her Kitchenaid mixer for this!!). The carbon black pigment is a UV absorber itself, but if you want other colours you'll have to do some digging.

Many high volume manufacturers co-extrude- a lower valued core sandwiched between the finish layers. This equipment is very expensive, but if you are casting the blanks you might be able to figure out how to insert this in a mold. That would greatly reduce what is needed to the outer layer, which really the only place you need it anyways. I normally deal with PP, not HGDPE but either are lousy choices for painting etc unless you flame treat them, and oil leached into the plastic will only make this worse.

Here's a URL for a recycler marketplace that may be of interest for the value of what you're doing: http://www.grn.com/cgi-bin/exview.cgi?w=60&sc=1002&st=LA.

Good luck.

Yea, the mixer is off limits here too, lol! I have shown my boss how much oil was being thrown out with the bottles, now we drain them over night and the oil is put into the used oil tank for heat during the winter. I'm not sure if the oil actually leaches into the plastic or not but realize it certainly could. I've thought about drilling a series of small holes at one end of the mold and elevating the other so that any left over residue could be collected in another container placed below the mold. At the scale I'm working on an old meat grinder may work to extrude materials to mix in colors and UV stabilizers etc.. until such a time I out grow it and could justify actual equipment. However from what I've been reading at this point in time it's cost prohibitive to recycle used oil bottles, I'm not sure if the cost is due to man power or other related collection and reclaimation efforts but I intend to find out. While it may not be feasable for a larger operation perhaps someone like myself could fill a niche and not be crushed by the costs. Thank you for the link and encouragement!

There's a Japanese company planing to market a recycling cooker that converts hdpe back into oil to use for fuel etc. By controlling the temp 5-700 deg. the result is a break down to different grades. Conversion rate is roughly 1 liter/kilogram. It's basically a still. I've converted appx. 2gals and am going to see how it works for diesel fuel.

Sounds like a good deal! I had seen something like but at least for me the six figure price tag for the one I saw was just too much and I didn't look any farther. Not sure what yours ran but I hope it works out. I found an old oil bottle in my garage, let it drain for a couple of hours cut it up and melted it down into a crude ingot, other than the fact that I got it too hot it tried to catch fire there is no petroleum odor that I can detect, of course it may be over powered by the slightly burnt smell. Even if I can't make it UV stable it should still be useable for small blanks for making sling shots with etc..

Do a search on "instructables.com", I've seen articles on making stuff out of HDPE, can't remember the temp, but it seems like 230 or so to fuse it together without making fumes.

I'm using a closed container (an old 5 gal. pressure cooker) that discharges through a 1/4" ID line into about 30 gal.cold water (in a 55gal drum) and the oil floats to the top.

Interesting. Then you skim it off the top or is there more to it than that?

Just curious, if you don't mind me asking, how much of what you put in comes out as oil and would the oil you get be suitable for use as a biodiesel?

A thread on that pressure cooker:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/59652

Would it be possible to inject live steam into the bottles to remove the residue then use a solar still to separate the resultant components?

It might be. I drained an oil bottle for a couple of hours earlier today, I then sliced it in half length wise. There was very little residue left, I gave each side a shot of brakleen and wiped off the plastic. It melted down nicely and there wasn't much of an odor to it. I've been using 350 degree temp to melt it down, flash point is around 640 degrees give or take if what I read was correct, I have had no issues with smoke so far even with the oil bottle.

To separate the components what you describe is a Wiped Film Evaporate. Never heard of a solar on though.

The question you should be asking is are they made to break down the way drywall buckets are. Drywall buckets are "biodegradable" and embrittle when in sunlight. I think it's an additive put into the plastic (they might be HDPE) to accelerate this. Virgin HDPE is very stable outdoors, and wouldn't need any additive. You need to find out if your oil containers weather out, leave some out in the sun and see if they "chalk" or get brittle.

The HDPE isn't UV stabilized which was the reason I started this thread, I was wanting to know it making it UV stabilized was something the amature can do in the home shop or not. I can still put it to good use but perhaps not exactly like I had wanted to if it's not feasable to do on a micro level.

Yea, I was wondering about that myself, everything I've read to date says HDPE degrades with UV exposure.

Here is something I have noticed: Maybe an engineer here can accurately describe the process, ( I would like to know what it is called and how does it occur and how it affects the process of uv degradation( other than the word " migration") when the hdpe container is and is not exposed to uv. A couple of years ago I purchased a case of castrol 10 w / 40 oil, after a while I noticed that the box started to get darker in color, if the bottles were unopened, how was oil " vapor" leeching into the cardboard ? I opened the box and removed one of the containers of oil and could see that the container was no longer white but was tan colored, my hypothesis was that the oil molecules were smaller than the hdpe molecules and the transfer process was similar to the way acetylcholine will move from one chemical receptor to another through intersital spaces. If I leave the bottles in the box and do not expose them to uv, how will the transfer of the oil affect the structure of the hdpe container and will all of the oil eventually leech out and the container will stay stable in its density or will the container collapse and I will have a big puddle of oil to clean up ? Reading this thread made me wonder about the viability of reusing the oil containers.

Yes, you are correct that the oil is diffusing through the polymer walls. I have this issue at work with some products that have lower molecular weight hydrocarbons, especially aromatics and d'Limonene (the lower pressure caused by the diffusion and evaporation out the other side actually sucks in the side of the container. You should see what it will do to a 45 gallon poly drum!!).

If you check this link http://www.stevenabbott.co.uk/PracticalSolubility/SolventBlends.html it has lots of interesting info about polymers- go partway down, click on the rightmost box and select PE ( the top choice). Then pick any 2 solvents from the other boxes and play around with the slider. it shows for example, that a 25:75 mixture of xylene and hexane is a better solvent for PE than either on it's own.

What's happening is the oil is actually dissolving into the PE, not the other way around. This does result in a swelling and softening of the PE wall, but it is due to the mutual attraction of the two materials. So over time (maybe slightly before the heat death of the universe) the oil may all evaporate or soak into the cardboard, but it won't form a puddle unless some other flaw allows it. Otherwise, the oil that would be in the puddle wants to go back in as fast as the stuff inside want s go out, with the exception of the reverse osmotic pressure of gravity.

The color was kind of an after thought to be honest! I was more concerned with trying to make it UV stable and also wanting to do this with used oil bottles as they are currently a huge waste of resources as almost no one will recycle them. The reasons I've read range from it being cost prohibitive to the end users find the left over petroleum odor to be offending. I don't know, likely not considered to be profitable enough for looking to make money from it to pursue if I was to guess. The bottle I melted down had no odor to it other than the normal plastic smell. Perhaps the odor is with the darker colored plastics. I know as a lead man in a beef packing plant the blue hard hat they gave had a foul smell to it that never really went away it faded some but had the same pungent odor three years later when I traded it in for a new one. I'll try several different colors throughout the week just to see if it matters or not, may be the difference in how well they were cleaning their bottles or perhaps what solvent they used. Thank you for your input !

Just go to supplier of thermoplastics for injection molding (*) and request a UV stabilizer for your intended application: it´s just as simple as that!

(*) this additive is sold in pellets (for all kind of plastic processings machines) and is to be added in a certain proportion to the recycled stuff you are working on.

Sounds good thank you! I'm looking into it to see if perhaps they may already be stabilized since they sit on a shelf under UV lights. My biggest obstacle so far is the removal of the petroleum odor, certain oil leave a much stronger odor than others I have found.

Well, petroleum odor is not neccesarily an issue because the parts you will make with this plastic you are recycling can only be used in industrial applications like boxes for bearrings, drill bits or even drawers for stacking nuts or nails (just some ideas).Odor is an issue in the food, cosmetic, etc industries... but those fields should be completely out of your scope.

I hear you! However in my search to figure out a better way of recycling it I keep running into the same issue of odor being why so many tons make their way into the landfill. What I have melted down so far to date has not smelled bad to me, however I keep reading that used oil bottles are generally not used as the end users find the lingering odor to be offensive. Perhaps what that really means is cleaning it well enough to remove odors on an industrial scale is cost prohibitive. I'm not sure to be honest!

Don't know what the porosity of the plastics, but I'm sure there is and like any process, there is a certain amount of degassing that will occur. You have to address the problem at the source.

I debated long and hard about whether or not I should even acknowledge any more of your comments.

I've decided I would address the issue, that if this was facebook would have gotten you blocked!

After calling me an "Idiot" you lost any and all respect I may have had for your opinions or advice. Your personal opinion of me is none of my business and I don't care to know it!

It may be true that I'm no Einstein, however in the ninth grade I was considered gifted and was moved on to college level reading and math. And believe it or not I do hold a degree, and multiple diplomas for whatever that matters in the grand scheme of things! I came from an extremely poor family so I've had to work for everything I have ever had!

There are a great many things I simply must admit that I do not know but I have a constant hunger for knowledge and that is why I have spent most of the last half century taking courses and experimenting with things that interest me on my own.

Wanting to learn and expand my knowledge base is what brought me to this forum and I have little time or patience for those who feel the need to belittle others because for what ever reason they seem to think they are superior to others! If you wish to discuss this you can send me a private message as I will not continue this on this thread! Nor will I acknowledge anything thing else you have to say until or unless I see the two magic words that almost everyone thinks makes a mistake better.

Have a nice day!

For a fellow who complains about off topic subjects and in my opinion has an acute psychological projection disorder, the you really shouldn't have responded, period.

You don't put even understand how problems or solution are developed.

Instead you just list things your don't understand as off topic, complain about it and hearing yourself talk, that's all.

Some more thoughts about odor: The idea of recycling these bottles is great... therefore I suggest you to go stepwise: if most bottles have a mild odor and some really stink, start your business using only the less offensive ones, and once you have made your first million, hire a chemist to find out what component of the "other" oil bottles smells so bad and let him figure out how to solve the problem.

Finally: you can mask or eliminate residual odors by adding masking agents that may imitate ANY smell -from flowers to roasted turkey- which are also sold in pellets. There are also odor neutralizers. There are a lot of companies worldwide like this one

http://www.andreaaromatics.com/Deodorants/deodorants.html

you may contact.

Good luck!

Very helpful information! Thank you very much!

I have always wondered if roofing shingles made from recycled HDPE would be a great idea for a long life, reasonably priced alternative to other roofing products.

There are some PVC shingles on the market but they are very expensive.

we need to re-shingle our roof soon, and I've been looking into steel.

They even make it look like clay tiles.

I too, have been looking at steel and I am impressed with all of the pattern choices.

One of my close friends recently purchased and installed the metal roofing that mimics clay tiles and it looks awesome.

I am confident that a properly installed, high quality metal roof will last for over 100 years with little to no maintenance.

Over 100 years with little or no maintenance is kind of stretching it, don't you think ?

Not withstanding rust, corrosion and the painted surface peeling in less than 25 years, not to mention the sealant around the vent(s) , flashing(s) etc.

Besides, the manufacturers and installers will be pushing walkers in 100 years so they're not likely to be honoring any 100 year warranty.

with 20 year warranties with asphalt. Its possible, but what are warranties, same owner, prorated., company in business.

I think that remodeling were the roofing style would change and would happen before that 100 years.

Anyway, our house was built around 1998, but we weren't the original owners, we bought it about 7 years old.

anyways, about 7 years ago, I started to pick up asphalt shingles on out lawn, of course I blamed the neighbors.. ...... how can it be our roof.

I gathered all the shingles and climbed on our roof and sure enough it was ours and there was quite a lot of loose shingles up there, even a large section of shingles loose, so I and re-nailed it where I could and tarred the shingles down, and we had some of the extra shingles stored up in our garage, I looked on the package and wrote down the numbers, and did a internet search on recalls, and sure enough, there was a recall on these, because there wasn't a large enough tar strip laid down on it. and they would replace you shingles, BUT, it only applied to the original owners that bought it.

Every spring and fall I check my roof, but I must have done a good repair job, because no problems yet, and the shingles are holding up, but in three years, we'll see.

Tarred the shingles ( I believe the " tar" is called, " Lap Cement " )

Good job.

Of course, now that your going to be fixing roofs, you'll need to be licensed, kinda like a P.E. , not to be confused with a train engineer.

oh, oh..... is that why I couldn't get the 'Tar' off my pants because it was 'Lap Cement' .

Even though, I never like roofing, but when I was doing that, I came to the conclusion that as I'm getting older,.... I also no longer care for heights.

"lap cement" = asphalt base "tar"

A rose by any other name..... Well, you know how it goes.

Yup.

Not really.

If the roof jacks and storm collars are properly installed on all penetrations, all fasteners concealed & properly installed per area wind loading requirements, all joints are properly sealed so that the sealant is under the steel and not exposed to direct sunlight and the sealant is 50 year guaranteed product such as a good silicone RTV.

High quality Kinar coatings are available that are guaranteed for 75 years if you want to spend the money.

The roof may oxidize, the coating may fade, and possibly peel but the roof will not leak if it is the correct thickness and installed properly.

Back in early 2001 an original 200 year-old library building metal roof I believe it was in Boston was finally replaced due to aesthetic reasons but not because it was leaking. (The longevity and condition of the roof really impressed me.)

It was unpainted galvanized metal of 9 gauge thickness and it did have some rusted areas but none were clear through.

I do see a lot of the cheaper, architectural grade metal roofing where the coating fades early and starts peeling off within 5-10 years. (You get what you pay for.)

I want a waterproof roof that I do not have to access when I get older and I will excuse the faded or peeling coating by calling the affect "patina" aging.

How's that for justification?

Metal roofs are all the rage in Minnesota.

I don't remember the cost difference, but the life span is significantly longer.

They (HDPE shingles) might last well and be a great hail repellant, but if there was ever a fire, look out!

I am virutally (99.8%) certain that no smart home insurance company would cover such a home with a roof as that.

I think OP should listen to R&Ddoc about Masterbatch plastics with colorant and UV stabilizer pre-added. Much easier. And rather than use a long oven, why go ahead and get yourself a screw extruder, or make one? Surely it can't be rocket science.

What you need to know is how to efficiently and cheaply clean the diced up oil containers...how to solvent extract (and re-use the solvent without any fugitive emission of vapors), recover drained oil, etc. Then you will need process parameters as plasticizing temperature for extrusion melt, extrusion pressure requirements, safety equipment for the extruder, etc. Might be a learning curve here.

I have a good deal of the info that I feel I need. I'm doing this small scale for now and unless I can make it UV stable then it will stay small so I'm not sure I can justify an extruder...etc. I agree there is a bit of a learning curve to it and likely much I do not yet know, however for what I'm doing at the moment I believe I'm doing ok. Not a great deal of oil left after draining over night and what ever oil is collected is used for heating I'm not interested in premixed plastics as I'm looking at keeping oil bottles and their residue out of the landfill.

They do make shingles from cast off plastic but from the YouTube video I watched they just throw what ever kind of plastic in the mix and grind it up, throw some sand in it for a binder then pressure form it after adding something to resist deterioration from UV rays. Since flash point of HDP is a little over 600 degrees I wouldn't be over concerned with them being a fire hazard and wouldn't dent like a metal roof in a hail storm, if your house gets that hot it's likely already a loss anyways!

Plastic as roofing material. Thermal expansion is what I'd be concerned about. Among other things.

HDPE is stable to 230 degrees Fahrenheit so I wouldn't think thermal expansion would be much of an issue.

Thermal stability and thermal expansion are completely different animals.

Plastics expand much more than even wood or metal.

Check it out.

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion for Various Materials at ...

That's all good and well but I didn't see HDPE per say listed on the chart. Since they offer a 50 year warranty on shingles made from waste plastics including HDPE I imagine the only real problem comes from trying to over think it!

http://www.enviroshake.com/

4.2 chart 2 Plastics and other materials (from link provided by Lyn), please note that the formatting was compromised during copy/paste operation.

inch / inch / deg F

(mm / mm / deg C 77° to 572°F(25° to 300°C)77° to 392°F(25° to 202°C)77° to 212°F(25° to 100°C)77° to -58°F(25° to -50°C)PTFE (plain)79.6 x 10-6(143.3 x 10-6)G (Graphite PTFE)78.5 x 10-6(141.3 x 10-6)GC (Graphite-Carbon PTFE)76.2 x 10-6(137.2 x 10-6)GFPA (Graphite-fiber-reinforced PTFE)70.3 x 10-6(126.7 x 10-6)GL-2076.8 x 10-6(132.2 x 10-6)SP-31 (Polymer-Filled PTFE)77.2 x 10-6(139.0 x 10-6)

If you will take the time to read the above mentioned section in Lyn's link, you might be surprised that HDPE in various forms is mentioned, in various temperature ranges, and in English or Metric units. These data indicated it is nearly an order of magnitude greater thermal expansion than most metals.

I understand what your saying. However it does not address my questions! I am only interested in UV stability and the the removal of any petroleum odor that seem to currently render used oil bottles less than desirable for recycling.

Those who use the end product and or design items from the recycled HDPE can concern themselves with such information. To me personally, no matter how great and informative it may be, it is useless at this point in time. I downloaded the chart as I collect all the information that I come across for a just in case.

Not trying to be rude or dismissive of anyone, just not interested in it for anything other than building my reference library.

Some vinyl siding on a house are terrible in the sun, makes it look cheap with the waves caused by expansion.

Nice link.

Thermal dimension stability is what I'm addressing.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/014139109390095Z

If you don't find your answer there perhaps you should start a thread on the subject matter.

You are starting to sound like you are in well over your head, technically, and don't want to admit it.

The last two responses indicate that you do not understand either thermal expansion or thermal stability.

Thermal expansion of HDPE is well known and published. The fact that you can't find it speaks to your inability to search.

Then your cited publication deals with Melt Flow Index of HDPE blends after repeated processing of the thermoplastic materials. Another process you fail to comprehend.

Good luck.

Say what you wish, it doesn't mean you know what your talking about! I've always heard that those who insult others to make themselves feel important are, well, sorely lacking in other areas of their lives!

The information you seem to feel you need to shove down my throat has no bearing on what I'm currently working on nor was it asked for!

I am only interested in removing any objectionable residual petroleum odors and UV stabilization of the HDPE from used oil bottles!

I may have posted an unintended link as I have in fact been doing months worth of research into the recycling of different plastics, your opinion of my abilities is irrelevant!

In my earlier comment when I said you perhaps knew more than I, I was only being polite! If you have nothing to add to my original two questions feel free to find another thread to troll!

If the truth hurts you, maybe it should!

You came here asking for help. You don't get to make the rules.

Good luck!

I didn't realize I was searching for an answer, I thought I was supplying one?

Looked to be in the form of a question to me. If your worried about how something may be affected then it would appear you do in fact not have the answer!

Not to mention your comments were off topic from the information I was hoping someone on here would already know the answers to!

I am only interested in what I started this thread on, every thing else is of no importance to me!

I'm not worried, you seem to only willing to hear what you want. One other thing, when discussing (brainstorming if you may) things can go off topic, and then redirect on topic with a new perspective.

It just seems that for some reason, your feeling are hurt. Put your emotions and sensitivity aside.

That's ok Luke, it's something you don't or won't understand, gave it time. Go back to reading out of a book. It's what you think you're good at.

Oh look, someone listed you off topic, for some reason you put so much weight in it.

These oil skimmers (tube skimmers) may be of some use.

http://content.oilskim.com/challenges-of-removing-surface-oil-wwd

Fill out the form, and go to the download pdf on oil removal 101. You may find something useful. Another item of some use: some water treatment companies sell yellow colored cartridge filters that are hydrophobic and they absorb oil while passing water through them. I have not searched for those in a while, but they will Google.

It's truely sad when one seeks information and ends up having to deal with know it all trolls! I'd like to thank everyone who offerd helpful advice or shared links etc... Thank you! As for the trolls, well, we won't go there! I take this venture of reclaiming the hdpe from used oil bottles very seriously and will stick with it for as long as it takes to figure it out!

Your welcome, glad I could assist.

Luke: Lift her head up, she is sucking mud! (If you don't know that is the punch line of an old joke, then no amount of explaining will help you.)

Luke: A bit of free, friendly advice, take it for what it is worth: Usually when someone comes into the forum and poses a brainstorming type of question, they are here to seek information that may in fact be useful to them. Several of us have offered information, opinions, etc. While the use of HDPE remelts might just work for roofing materials that would be less expensive than other materials, it does not imply that these materials are (1) intrinsically aesthetic (codes, zoning ordinances apply), (2) fire retardant or even fire resistant, or (3) that any insurance company will carry coverage and/or issue policies to customers for such roofing.

We were not talking about the melt temperature on the roof coming into play. We were discussing two separate issues: (1) thermal expansion of the material - as the temperature goes up, the material expands (gets bigger), and (2) thermal stability - the range of temperatures where the material has good structural integrity (does not flow or creep, and exhibits little thermoplasticity), and the temperature range of transition into a soft material that does creep, flow (even slowly), and exhibits high rates of irreversible deformation to applied stresses. This means if it gets hot enough it loses its strength and its shape. That means that if the temperature where this takes place likely to take place in the environment as placed, this would not be a suitable material for permanent structures (like roofing material, for example).

I think your desire to recycle plastic oil containers is one of some merit, but you need to check out all the angles on something before you dive off neck deep in something that could cause you to financially lose your shirt. We are just here to help, not to raise your hackles. If your sensibilities have been triggered, you might want to step back, take a deep breath, and calm down before you blow a gasket. We are actually here to help you, in spite of what you may think.

What would even be more cool? Come up with a system for making extrusions that a homeowner could use to make plastic items from by recycling plastics, especially Lexan (polycarbonate). You could make the machine with dies for various shape cross sections, even sheet materials? I don't know, and I don't know what home owner would actually save up 4-5 years worth of containers (or trade with his neighbor who saves up HDPE).

I myself would rather see an aluminum can recycling system a home owner could use to make cast aluminum with, or maybe even one that could make aluminum extrusions, but this seems silly when you can take cans to the recycle center, and you can order nearly any shape cross-section aluminum piece directly from the internet already.

Great post you wrote!