Pollution Solution for Old Filters

Her Foxton-based business Filter Disposal Services helps get rid of used oil filters in a sustainable way, and has sparked a hunt for more pollution solutions.

As environmental awareness in the automotive sector has grown, so has the grassroots business she got into in 2016.

“It has grown mostly organically.  It originally started out very grassroots, a one-man-band with filters crushed in a purpose-built machine at a home-based location.”

Lisa says she is now finding there are more and more workshops looking to do the right thing, and wanting more sustainable options rather than just sending everything to landfill.

Once the oil is squeezed out of the filters it goes to oil recovery specialists and the metal part of the filters is recycled through a scrap metal merchant.

The company is also the only one that offers to take away paper oil filters which often end up amongst workshop rubbish destined for landfill.

“We do charge for them, and they go through a similar process where we extract the oil, and actually there is more oil in them than in the metal ones.”

Then there’s the plastic oil containers that get sent off to be reused and workshop rags which are put in a separate bin.

"We collect plastic oil containers, and make sure they are as empty and as clean as possible before they go onto another company that washes and shreds them and prepares them for future use.

 "For the rags, we put time and energy into extracting the oil and getting them as dry as possible before disposing of them correctly.”

Currently the company covers from Taranaki to Hawkes Bay and down to Wellington with everything transported to Foxton to be processed.