Gladstone’s Northern Oil Refinery has notched up its 10 millionth litre of re-refined lube oil in a Queensland environmental first.

The $65 million re-refinery opened in March to give new life to waste oil collected from truck fleets, heavy vehicle operators, mines and local governments from across the country.

The re-refinery’s operators, Southern Oil Refining and J.J. Richards & Sons, said the milestone reflected growing industry appetite to embrace the highest standard of waste oil recycling.

“To put this milestone in context, 10 million litres of lube oil is enough to run 2 million cars in Australia for a year,” Southern Oil Managing Director Tim Rose said.

“The beauty of lubricating oil is that it doesn’t wear out, it just gets dirty and the additives in the oil lose effectiveness over time.

But our re-refining process produces no waste – every component is reused and 99 per cent of the lube oil component in the waste oil is recovered as high quality lube oil for re-use.

So once these 10 million litres have done their job lubricating the wheels of industry, they can be collected and sent back to the Northern Oil Refinery to create a near perpetual cycle of use and re-use of a diminishing and finite resource”.

Gladstone Region Mayor Gail Sellers said the Northern Oil Refinery stood as a shining example of sustainable use of precious and finite resources.

“This is a wonderful milestone for the Northern Oil Refinery whose success hopefully points the way to a more sustainable future for all Australians,” Councillor Sellers said.

“The Gladstone Region thrives on industry but this does not mean that it cannot continue to develop in a sustainable manner, and measures such as the re-refining of lube oil help maintain the balance between progress and maintaining a healthy environment.

Southern Oil Refining and J.J. Richards & Sons have good reason to be proud of what the refinery has achieved since March and I wish them the very best for continued future success”.

Member for Flynn Ken O’Dowd also praised the re-refinery as a leading investment in manufacturing, in regional Australia and in a greener future.

“The Northern Oil Refinery gives waste oil producers a home-grown environmental choice for their waste lube that underwrites a new industry and new jobs for Gladstone,” he said.

“It is a great example of two businesses combining their expertise – and in doing so benefiting the environment and generating great economic opportunity”.