Defunct Oil Tank

Reed_Richards

We have an oil tank that is no longer used.  It is empty to the level of the exit valve.  Does anyone know how you would get it removed and how much that would cost?  It's plastic with a single wall so I don't see that it is capable of being used elsewhere.

QrizB

My first thought would be to cut it up and feed it into my wheelie bin

I don't know how practical that is for you?

lohr500

If you are in a rural area, it might be worth asking a local farmer or two.

How big is the tank?

They may well be interested and will probably have the means to shift and transport it.
My local farmer took our old single skinned 2500 litre tank for free, even with some damage to the top part from a fallen tree. 

Has it been replaced with a new tank, or have you moved away from oil?
There is probably a reasonable amount of good oil still in the bottom of the tank which you can salvage.
I syphoned ours out into 20 litre clear drums. Then allowed the oil/sediment/water to settle and then finally syphoned off the clear oil layer out of the 20 litre drums, one at a time, into a clean 20 litre drum.

The salvaged oil went into the new tank and hasn't caused any obvious problems in well over 5 years.

I can't remember how many drums I saved, but it was quite a few so worth doing.
It also lightened the weight of the old tank making it easier to manhandle through the garden to an area where the farmer could lift it with his telehandler.    

Rodders53

It's hazardous waste and needs specialist removal by someone with a suitable waste carriers licence.  Most (all?) domestic oil boiler service people will know suitable people (if they don't do it themselves).

Not sure the stink of kerosene in a domestic waste bin full of cut up oil tank would go unnoticed by our refuse team and therefore be left unemptied.

mmmmikey

My local heating oil supplier sells tanks and does things like drain oil into containers for transfer across or disposal, cleans out tanks, etc. so might be worth seing if there's someone like that near you.

HillStreetBlues

QrizB said:

My first thought would be to cut it up and feed it into my wheelie bin

I don't know how practical that is for you?

Depends how close they are to you.

QrizB

HillStreetBlues said:

QrizB said:

My first thought would be to cut it up and feed it into my wheelie bin

I don't know how practical that is for you?

Depends how close they are to you.

My waste goes for incineration rather than landfill, so they might even appreciate a bit of kerosese-y plastic!

Reed_Richards

QrizB said:

My first thought would be to cut it up and feed it into my wheelie bin

I don't know how practical that is for you?

Purely as an aside, I once got my dustbin returned with a note attached, asking me not to put dust in it!  I had a bagless vacuum cleaner where you empty the contents directly into the bin but the binmen didn't like that and requested that I bagged the dust and binned the bag.  Modern times.