So that I’m clear, I’m ***not*** thinking about pouring my used motor oil all over the yard. But I ***did*** think about pouring out a small jar of unused olive oil in the dirt. I’m 85 to 90 percent sure I’ve heard that’s a no-no, but I’m wondering why. What exactly happens when oil hits dirt? Shouldn’t the soil bacteria chew it up just like they chew up everything else organic? And would the same thing happen to crude oil?
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plant oils are fine to dump into the dirt, small amounts at a time. The bacteria in the dirt LOVES it. Do not pour motor oil in to the dirt, it takes much longer to break down and will kill plants.
The olive oil would have been fine. People usually dont because smell and can attract animals. I usually save cooking oils till cardboard burn time and pour it on that
Olive oil is often used to condition soil, so it’s not bad to dump out if done correctly.
The FDA would prefer you didn’t though, mostly because you might not dump it correctly and it’ll end up in places it shouldn’t be.
Soil bacteria will most definitely handle it, most plant-based-oils can be done like this but if you “allow it” and everyone up/down your street starts dumping out used cooking oil into their backyards you’ll have an overall accumulation if say… they dump it out just before it rains (where it now ends up pretty much everywhere).
It’s a problem at scale, effectively.
You can compost edible fats. You probably don’t want to, because fat attracts pests, but fat in a compost heap will break down without harming the environment.
Don’t pour olive oil down the drain, because it clogs pipes. Don’t put it somewhere it’ll flow away, because it might make roads slippery or float on lakes and hurt fish. Be mindful of where the oil is going to go between when you pour it out and when it finishes breaking down. But edible fats are edible because living things can break them down for energy, so they aren’t going to poison anything.
Hydrocarbon oils like mineral oil and crude oil aren’t digestible by you or by soil bacteria. Crude oil contains benzene, which can give you cancer. Mineral oil isn’t very poisonous, but it doesn’t break down (it’s like a liquid version of milk jug plastic).
As an alternative, if you are adventurous, you can try and make olive oil soap with your olive oil, then just wash with it!
[https://lovelygreens.com/simple-castile-soap-recipe-make-olive-oil-soap/](https://lovelygreens.com/simple-castile-soap-recipe-make-olive-oil-soap/)
I used to pour my bacon grease in a section of dirt in my garden that didn’t have anything planted yet. Everything around it started flourishing and when I did eventually plant something it flourished as well. Could be a coincidence of course
Why not make a candle out of it?
It’s not actually a bad thing, it’s more about to much of it can be a bad thing and it’s pretty easy to dump too much.
It’s also about wether or not you want to grow food in certain areas or not.
For example if you have old lead paint? It’s actually fairly safe to dump straight into the dirt, but you can’t plant any plants you want to eat there, BUT there are
Plants that actually use lead (amongst other heavy metals) to grow.
As for fatty oils and not motor oils, it’s more about how long it takes to break down compared to other organic materials. You CAN compost meat and oils and fats, but it just takes longer than the organic food waste that usually leafy greens or other food scraps and if you throw meat or oils into the compost heap, it won’t be broken down as fast as the leafy greens would be. (This is the same for things like avacado pits bones egg shells, etc)
Then you run into pests that like fatty oils or meats.
But yeah a jar of unused olive oil in your garden won’t do any harm, but if you do 5 jars daily that would be a problem.
the same can also be said if everyone did one jar everyday that would be a problem.
So basically it’s advised not to, and for things like motor oil it’s technically illegal, but the odd person doing it now and then it’s completely fine
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