# Does a vehicle workshop count emissions from used engine oil?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/workshop-used-engine-oil-emissions-scope

Only if you burn it. Used oil sold to an authorised re-refiner or recycler is not your emission; keep the disposal receipts. Used oil burned in a heater or boiler on your site is Scope 1 fuel combustion, counted from the litres burned.

## Sold or handed over

Oil passed to an authorised recycler is waste leaving your site. The emissions of treating it sit in your Scope 3, category 5, if you report that category.

## Burned on site

Burning waste oil for heat is fuel combustion in Scope 1. Record litres burned and use the IPCC default for waste oils, or your supplier's analysis.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.

- [Workshop carbon footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/auto-service-workshop-carbon-footprint)
- [Workshop AC gas recharge](https://senseible.earth/answers/workshop-car-ac-gas-top-up-scope-1)
- [Biomass or waste fuel in a boiler](https://senseible.earth/answers/biomass-or-waste-fuel-in-boiler-scope-1)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.