Gas Exchange

With gas prices so high these days, we tend to take for granted the ubiquitous availability of gasoline. If you need/want gas, it can usually be found within a 1/4 mile (assuming you live in some sort of urban area of course). It may be expensive, but we can get it, and get it without much hassle or thought.

What had never occured to me before was how difficult it is to get rid of gasoline. You need gas, you go get gas. But when you need to get rid of gas, what do you do? It just so happened today that NegativeMode and PositiveMode found themselves in possession of three containers of gasoline (don't ask). We needed to dispose of said gasoline, and wanted to do so in the safest, most environmentally sound manner possible (we couldn't use the gas in a vehicle because it was mixed slightly with soap, listerine, or bleach (depending on the container, again, don't ask)). What do you do in that situation? So easy to get gas, yet so hard to get rid of gas.

Throwing the gas in the trash would be highly flammable and dangerous, to both passers-by and sanitation workers. Pouring the gas down the drain would result in certain pollution (and probably a fire hazard as well), just as pouring the gas down a sewer would. Disposing the gasoline in a random field would invariably pollute a water supply in time. What to do with the gas?

We took it to a gas station. They sell gas, why not take our gas? Surely they have some way to dispose of gas. Nope, gas stations don't take your gas. Even an online search of the internet, which knows all, provides little help. Most sites tell you what not to do with gas, but never what to do (see, e.g. American Petroleum Institute, EPA). I think the best option would be burning some sort of effigy: maybe of President Bush, Celine Dion, Hayden Christensen, etc., but we have neither the time nor place for proper effiging. So, if anyone would like to take some gasoline, please let one of the MODES know. . . .