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Title: 'To the Greatest Extent Possible': Do-It-Yourselfers and the Recovery of Used Oil and Filters
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2005
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Abstract: This report is based on interviews with 1,203 California households undertaken in 2001 for the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB)--Do-It-Yourself households (DIY) who change the oil of household vehicles, "shade-tree mechanics" (STM) who also change oil for others, and households that do not change their own oil--on oil collection data maintained by the CIWMB; and on PUMS data on households. The report presents estimates of rates of DIY and STM activity; the volume of oil and filters consumed and disposed by DIY households and STMs; and the rate and volume of their illegal disposal, for California, for counties, and for population groups. Curbside pickup is shown to reduce illegal disposal nearly to zero. DIYers who do not have curbside pickup (therefore have to take oil to a collection center if they recycle it at all) dispose illegally at a 66 percent rate--48 percent even if they regard the available centers as "very convenient." Making curbside pickup available to 90 percent of California households would collect much more of the now illegally disposed oil than making collection centers "very convenient" to every household in the state.Younger U.S.-born STMs are shown to dispose of far more oil illegally than any other group. Surveys tend to underestimate sensitive behavior such as illegal disposal. A mathematical model of the relationship between survey data on disposal and aggregate data on used oil collection was developed to yield much more accurate estimates of illegal disposal overall and for various kinds of households. Estimated parameters of total and illegal used oil disposal were estimated from the survey data by multivariate regression, then applied to PUMS data on households to estimate total and illegal disposal by county.The report includes analysis of the media reachability of DIYers, STMs, and illegal disposers.
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Authors: Browning, Rufus; Shafer, Holly; Rogers, John D.
Publisher: State of California
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other
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