No, no, no, no! That is definitely not how my dad got rid of the used motor oil. Down the sewer? Wasteful! No, Dear old Dad gave it a second life and poured it along our back fence to keep the neighbor’s invasive bushes from sprouting up in OUR yard.
I’ve never really understood what varsol is, but whenever Dad was finished cleaning his paint brushes or what have you, he would pour it behind the shed where nothing would grow anyway.
Probably just one effect of more recycling programs. If they don’t encourage recycling old paint properly, people will dispose of it in worse ways: pouring it down street drains, flushing it down toilets, or concealing it inside bags and tossing it into recycling, where the non-dried-up paint contaminates the recycling and greatly reduces its’ resale value.
The “Dirty Jobs” paint recycling episode I remember had separate tanks for different types of paint, like oil vs. latex, and they used that paint for things like maintenance on bridge pilings, and other places that needed to be painted but it didn’t matter what the paint looked like because few people would see it.
I remember “varsol” from my childhood. Google tells me it’s a petroleum-derived mineral spirit whereas turpentine is derived from tree sap. But what I wonder is whether oil-based paint is even used much any more. Even automotive paint is now mostly water-based – not necessarily the clear coat, but the colour coat usually is. Why would anyone put up with the stench and cleanup difficulty and long drying time of an oil-based paint any more, especially for indoor use?
People just throw in the regular garbage, the same as the other household hazardous waste they want to dispose of. Almost no one goes to the occasional hazardous waste disposal events, because they are just too inconvenient.
Back in the day, “recycling Old Paint” meant a trip to the glue factory.