Design and manufacture of a low-cost mechanism for compacting used oil filters

Abstract

Used automotive oil filter disposal is a real and increasing problem in the United States. With over 450 million oil filters sold each year, and 80% of used filters thrown into landfills, this waste represents a significant toxic waste problem for the country. There are a number of economic and technological challenges in improving the overall rate of proper disposal of these filters, one of which is a recycling and disposal system that currently provides monetary incentives for crushing, rather than cleaning these filters. This paper extends previous research done by a group of MIT students into a low cost device for effective compaction of used oil filters. Testing is done on compacting heads of various shapes to determine crushing geometries to improve volume reduction for a given load. As a result, a sample system is designed and presented which is estimated to achieve at least 15% compaction of used filters using only 1000 lb-force for less than $200 in retail parts.