Manchester Auto Dealer Offers Biodegradable Oil Change

(Host) Motorists may soon be able to get an oil change that's not just a change, but an innovation.

A southern Vermont auto dealer plans to offer customers the option of using a new, biodegradable motor oil made from animal fat rather than fossil fuels.

VPR's Susan Keese paid a visit to Hand Motors in Manchester Center.

(Keese) Hand Motors has been nationally recognized for its efforts at ‘going green.'

Its service center is heated with recycled engine oil and waste cooking oil from local restaurants. Solar panels provide most of the dealership's hot water.

Company co-owner Jim Hand says he jumped at the chance to try a biodegradable motor oil made from beef tallow, a byproduct of meat processing.

(Hand) "We're always looking for new ideas to replace fossil-based fuels. We'd like to be in the transportation business, we know it's got to change. This is just one small way,(air tool sound) you gotta just keep pecking away at these kinds of things.."

(Keese) Hand says the new oil, called G-oil, is much less toxic than petroleum-based lubricants. And leaks or spills break down quickly in the environment.

According to the EPA, improperly discarded waste motor oil and motor oil road runoff are the nation's number one source of oil pollution.

For the past six months, Hand Motors has been testing G-Oil on its rental and service vehicles, with good results. Now Hand says, they're getting ready to offer it to customers.

(Hand) "We recommend to our people that we like to see cars have an oil change every five thousand miles and certainly at those intervals there's no difference in oil consumption, no change in operation. "

(Keese) Central Vermont Public Service has been using Green Earth's tallow-based bar and chain oil exclusively in its line clearing operations. Steve Costello is a spokesman for the utility.

(Costello) "The reason it's important is that every drop of oil used in a chain saw for bar and chain oil ultimately ends up in the environment. It's designed to come on to the chain automatically as the chain saw is operated and all of it ultimately flies into the environment. And in our case that's about five thousand gallons a year that‘s being used."

(Keese) Costello says conventional oil does break down eventually. But it takes a long time.

(Costello) "The new oil that we're using begins to break down almost immediately and it's virtually gone in about a month."

(Keese) G-Oil is domestically produced, by a company called Green Earth Technology, based in White Plains, New York.

The company is currently working on a product for diesel engines.

Its 5-W-30 oil was approved last year by the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's licensing agency, for use in cars and light trucks.

For VPR News, I'm Susan Keese.