08/31/2026
I had an interesting experience today that got me thinking about how easily a well-intentioned regulation can end up discouraging the exact behavior it's supposed to encourage.
I do my own oil changes, like a lot of people. I maintain several vehicles, so I collect the used oil in a sturdy, sealed 5-gallon container and periodically take it in for recycling.
Today I took my jug and another extra gallon, about six gallons of used oil, to my local AutoZone, only to discover that apparently Utah has changed the recycling process.
Instead of simply handing over your used oil for recycling, you're now directed to scan a QR code, go to a website, enter personal information including your name and ZIP code, report how much oil you're recycling, and certify that what you're dropping off is actually used oil.
On top of that, I'm limited to five gallons per day.
So they took five gallons and sent me home with the other gallon.
Here's where it gets particularly silly.
I used to work at this exact AutoZone. I know how the system works. The used oil goes into a large collection tank, and that tank is pumped out about once a week.
If I bring them five gallons today and come back tomorrow with the remaining gallon, what exactly have we accomplished?
It's the same six gallons.
Going into the same tank.
During the same collection cycle.
Going to the same place for recycling.
The only difference is that I have to make another trip.
And that got me wondering: what problem are we actually solving here?
I'm already doing the environmentally responsible thing. I'm taking a waste product that absolutely should not be dumped on the ground, poured down a drain, or thrown in the trash, and voluntarily bringing it somewhere equipped to recycle it.
Why does the government need to know who I am?
Why does my name need to be attached to five gallons of used motor oil?
Why does six gallons require two trips?
Why are we adding paperwork, data collection, QR codes and arbitrary daily limits to something that should be incredibly simple:
"Here's my used oil."
"Thanks for not dumping it in a field."
Done.
I'm sure there are reasons behind these regulations. Maybe people have contaminated recycling tanks with other chemicals. Maybe somebody has abused the program. Maybe there are reporting requirements intended to prevent improper disposal.
Fine.
But good intentions don't automatically make good policy.
If the objective is environmental protection, then the system should be designed around one very simple principle:
Make doing the right thing easier than doing the wrong thing.
Every additional hoop does the opposite.
Most people will probably scan the QR code, provide their information, make the extra trip and move on with their lives.
I will.
But some people won't.
And those are precisely the people we should be thinking about when designing these policies.
Someone standing there with six gallons of used oil has a choice. We can make recycling it ridiculously easy, or we can tell him we'll take five gallons, he needs to identify himself and fill out a form, and he can drive home with the rest and come back tomorrow.
Hopefully he comes back tomorrow.
But we've just made the environmentally responsible choice more difficult for absolutely no change in the ultimate environmental outcome.
There's also a broader principle here that increasingly bothers me: not every mundane interaction needs to become a data point.
I'm not doing anything wrong.
I'm recycling motor oil.
I don't particularly want to identify myself to the government every time I responsibly dispose of waste from an oil change. Maybe that information will never be used for anything beyond recordkeeping. That's not really the point.
The point is that we've become remarkably comfortable requiring people to identify themselves, scan something, register something, create a record, or enter themselves into another database just to perform ordinary, lawful activities.
And there's something absurd about a system supposedly designed to encourage responsible disposal saying:
"Thank you for recycling your hazardous waste responsibly. Unfortunately, you have one gallon too much. Please take that hazardous waste back home, store it overnight, drive it back across town tomorrow, identify yourself again, and then we'll put it into the exact same tank."
Sometimes the best environmental policy isn't another tracking system or another rule.
Sometimes it's simply:
"Bring us your old oil. We'll take care of it."
Make doing the right thing easier than doing the wrong thing.
That seems like a pretty good rule for government in general.
