Synthetic vs Regular Oil: Which is Greener?

It's time for an oil change. By now, you've probably been asked if you'd like regular conventional oil or synthetic oil. You've heard the reasons why synthetic oil is prefered for today's engines. Synthetic oil improves the vehicle's ability to start in colder temperatures. It also reduces or eliminates sludging. What you may not have considered is that synthetic oil is actually better for the environment.

Synthetic oil requires much fewer changes each year which in turn reduces waste oil. Traditional motor oils required changing every 3,000 miles or 3 months resulting in 4 oil changes per year. Synthetic oil can be run for at least twice as long. By using or switching to synthetic oil you can personally reduce the amount of waste oil you contribute by 50%!

Synthetic oil also has the benefit of decreasing our dependence on crude oil and lowers harmful emmissions. Experts agree that it is not the perfect solution, but in terms of environment impact it is certainly the more eco-friendly alternative.

It is important to note here that synthetic oil still requires proper recycling and should not be dumped. Jacquelyn Ottman, in her book Green Marketing, states that used motor oil is the largest single source of pollution in our nation's waterways. Please always recycle used motor oil properly.