Cleaning up used motor oil

Sometimes as you are out exploring you come across a campsite that has been trashed by its previous visitors.  As it is part of Galactica's prime directive to leave every place we visit better than we found it, we tend to haul out alot of extra trash. On one particular February afternoon we stumbled across an abandoned oil pan filled to the brim with used motor oil, including the oil filter.

First attempt was a failure

Initially I thought I'd try to just line a collapsible tub and fill it with some sand to help absorb the oil. Unfortunately the entire area had a lot of precipitation causing the ground to be soaked. It was almost a total disaster even trying to clean/absorb it. I had a plastic garbage bag which needed tripled lined just to hold the weight of less than 1/4 of the oil. It was a no-go.

Second Attempt, SUCCESS!

It finally hit me that my composting toilet uses dehydrated coco-coir bricks. They are highly absorbent. They can last up to a full month in the solid waste holding tank for Galactica's onboard toilet. It did not take the brick long (and a little bit a stirring with as shovel) for the entire pan of oil to be fully absorbed into the coco-coir material. This makes it much easier for me to safely bag up and transport elsewhere.

Leave No Trace

As a galactic space traveler, it's important to practice Leave No Trace principles to minimize your impact on the environments you visit. This means avoiding littering or leaving any waste behind, refraining from damaging natural or cultural resources, and being respectful of local wildlife and ecosystems. If we all do our part, we can help preserve these environments for future generations of space travelers to enjoy. Aboard Galactica we take care to minimize our impact on the natural world. Going forward we'll be packing out more waste than we brought in.

Quick YouTube video I created on how I cleaned it up