Used Oil Recycling and Pickup for San Francisco Businesses
Dimension collects used oil from San Francisco businesses — fryer oil and grease from restaurants and food production, waste motor and transmission oil from shops and fleet yards, hydraulic and gear oil, and oily water. Choose container removal, or on-site pumping that leaves your containers where they are.
California regulates used oil more tightly than federal rules do, and that changes who is legally allowed to take it off your site. This page covers what that means in practice for a San Francisco business, including where you can still self-haul and where you cannot.
This is a business service. San Francisco residents with used motor oil should use a certified collection center or the city’s household hazardous waste program.
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Public Sector
California used oil rules, and what happened to SFGreasecycle
California treats used oil as hazardous waste even when it exhibits none of the federal hazardous characteristics. That is stricter than the federal Used Oil Management Standards on their own, and it has a direct practical consequence: the company that hauls your oil must be a used oil hauler registered with DTSC. A general waste hauler cannot legally move it.
It also affects money, not just compliance. Industrial generators claiming California’s used oil recycling incentive must have used a registered hazardous waste transporter to move the oil to a permitted transfer facility or recycler — if they did not, CalRecycle denies the claim. Using an unregistered hauler can therefore cost you the incentive on top of the compliance exposure.
There is one narrow self-haul allowance worth knowing: California law lets certain people transport up to 55 gallons of used oil at a time, without a manifest, to a Certified Used Oil Collection Center — but only if the person transporting it generated the oil. Those certified centers are built for do-it-yourselfers dropping off motor oil, not for commercial volumes, so for most businesses this is not a workable route.
Restaurants often ask about SFGreasecycle, the SFPUC program that collected used cooking oil free from San Francisco restaurants. It ran from 2007 and collected over 3.3 million gallons from roughly 1,100 restaurants — about 35% of the city’s establishments — before the SFPUC retired it on April 1, 2019, on the basis that private collectors had grown to fill the need. If you remember signing up for it, that is why it no longer exists.
| Requirement | What it means for your business |
|---|---|
| A DTSC-registered used oil hauler | Haulers must register with DTSC before transporting used oil to a recycling facility. Ask any provider to confirm registration before they collect. |
| Registered transporter to keep your incentive claim | CalRecycle denies used oil recycling incentive claims where a registered hazardous waste transporter was not used. The saving from a cheaper unregistered hauler rarely covers the lost claim. |
| Used oil is hazardous waste in California | Regardless of whether it exhibits a federal hazardous characteristic. It travels on a manifest, not a general waste ticket. |
| The 55-gallon self-haul exception | You may move up to 55 gallons at a time, manifest-free, to a Certified Used Oil Collection Center — but only oil you generated yourself, and those centers are set up for DIY drop-offs rather than commercial volume. |
| SFGreasecycle ended April 1, 2019 | The free SFPUC restaurant grease collection program no longer operates. Private collection replaced it. |
Rules change — confirm current requirements with the agency before relying on this page.
Areas we serve around San Francisco
We collect across San Francisco and the wider Bay Area — restaurant kitchens throughout the city, food production in the Bayview and Dogpatch, and fleet and service operations along the 101 and 880 corridors. The Bay Area is our deepest provider network and our highest-volume oil market, so pickups here schedule faster than anywhere else.
- San Francisco County
- San Mateo County
- Alameda County
- Contra Costa County
- Santa Clara County
- Marin County
Case Studies
A multi-location automotive operation needed a dependable way to clear waste motor oil, used oil filters, and oily water from its service bays without piling up drums or risking compliance gaps across states with different used-oil rules. Dimension stepped in with scheduled container removal, on-site pumping for high-volume bays, and licensed re-refining partners tailored to each site's volume.
By consolidating used oil collection under one nationwide partner, the operation eliminated overflowing storage, kept full chain-of-custody documentation and diversion reports for every pickup, and diverted thousands of gallons of waste oil into re-refined base oil — all while keeping costs well below industry averages.
What Does Oil Recycling With Dimension Look Like?
- Scheduling: Let us know the specifics of your used oil removal needs — the type of oil (cooking, motor, transmission, hydraulic, gear), approximate volume and container or tank sizes, and whether you need containers removed, pumped, or both. Pick a date and time that works for pickup. Our AI-powered quoting prices most orders instantly; complex routes get a manual quote within 1 business day.
- Provider Assignment: We match you with a reliable, certified disposal technician from our extensive nationwide network. They arrive with the right equipment — a truck for sealed container removal or a vacuum truck for on-site pumping — and handle all labeling, manifesting, and DOT-compliant transportation.
- Pickup and Recycling: Our team manages the collection and sustainable recycling of your used oil at certified facilities — cooking oil into biodiesel, motor oil into re-refined base oil. After completion you can access your diversion report in your portal, ensuring full transparency, compliance documentation, and peace of mind.
What Used Oil Recycling Costs
From $500 for a single-drum pickupA 55-gallon drum of used oil plus the one-time pickup and transportation fee. Most orders are priced instantly online.
Used oil is priced per container, plus one service fee per pickup. That fee is charged once per collection however many containers you have, so the cost per drum drops sharply on larger jobs.
Recurring routes take 15% off, and booking two pickups together takes 20% off each. Orders above $5,000 are quoted by our team within one business day.
| Container | From |
|---|---|
| 55-gallon drum of used or motor oilStandard steel or poly drum — our most common pickup | $250 |
| Service fee for pickup and transportationCharged once per collection, not per container | $250 |
Starting prices are for clean, single-stream oil in sound containers. What you pay depends on the oil type, how contaminated it is, and how easily a truck can reach the containers. Other container sizes — 5, 10, 15 and 30-gallon containers and 275-gallon totes — and on-site pumping are priced per job.
Some states classify used motor oil as hazardous waste, which can change handling requirements and price. Oil recycling is not currently available in New Jersey.
San Francisco questions, answered
Is SFGreasecycle still running?
No. The SFPUC retired SFGreasecycle on April 1, 2019. Over its twelve years it collected more than 3.3 million gallons of used cooking oil from around 1,100 San Francisco restaurants, and the SFPUC closed it on the basis that private collectors had grown enough to cover the need.
Restaurants that were on the program now need a private collector. We provide scheduled collection or on-site pumping across the city.
Is used oil hazardous waste in California?
Yes. California classifies used oil as hazardous waste even when it does not exhibit any federal hazardous characteristic, which is stricter than the federal Used Oil Management Standards alone.
In practice that means your oil must be moved by a hauler registered with DTSC, on a manifest. A general waste hauler cannot legally take it.
Can I take used oil to a collection center myself?
In limited circumstances. California allows a generator to transport up to 55 gallons of their own used oil at one time, without a manifest, to a Certified Used Oil Collection Center.
Those centers exist for do-it-yourselfers dropping off motor oil, so they are not geared to commercial volumes, and the allowance only covers oil you generated yourself. For a restaurant or a fleet yard, scheduled collection is almost always simpler and cheaper once time is counted.
Does using the wrong hauler cost me anything beyond a fine?
Potentially yes. If you claim California’s used oil recycling incentive, CalRecycle will deny the claim where a registered hazardous waste transporter was not used.
So an unregistered hauler that quotes lower can end up more expensive once the lost incentive is counted, before any enforcement exposure.
Should I choose container removal or on-site pumping?
Pumping suits high-volume kitchens and multi-fryer operations, and anywhere carrying hot oil through the building is a safety concern you would rather remove — a vacuum truck pumps straight from the fryer tank or grease bin and your containers stay put.
Container removal suits sites with steady, predictable volume and easy outside access. Both are available across San Francisco; describe your setup and we will price both.
Serving a business outside San Francisco? See our nationwide oil recycling.