System analysis of waste oil management in Finland.

Waste oil management systems include processes such as generation, collection, recycling, and disposal and result in various environmental, economic, social, and regulatory impacts which complicate waste management analysis. In this paper, the waste oil management system in Finland is analysed using the systems thinking approach to identify the main system components and to describe the interactions between them. The results of analysing the Finnish system increase the understanding of the main factors affecting the performance of waste oil management. The outcome of this analysis can be adapted for the examination of similar systems. The waste oil management system analysis shows an increase in the performance: the waste oil collection rate within the official collection system has increased more than 30% during the last 6 years. The environmental performance of the treatment and recovery system have increased, taking into account the increase of the material recovery rate, more than 70% during the last 6 years.