Uses For Recycled Cooking Oil

Posted on: 27 July 2015

If you're like most restaurants, you go through a huge amount of cooking oil each month. However, disposing of used oil can be a problem. You don't want to put it in your drains and risk clogging your pipes and contaminating the sewer system. Although there are many ways to properly dispose of your cooking oil, recycling this product is just good business.

Recycling your oil is not only kind to the environment, but can actually attract customers who prefer to do business with companies to make efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. Plus, instead of paying to have your oil and grease carted away, many recycling companies will actually pay you to be able to collect your cooking oil.

Ways recycled cooking oil is used

1. To make fuel for vehicles. One of the most exciting uses for recycled cooking oil is to make bio-fuel that is used to power modified diesel combustion engines like those in cars, buses and vans. Fuel made from cooking oil is a renewable, sustainable fuel that burns cleanly, an additional environmental plus. Bio-fuel made from recycled cooking oil and grease is also non-toxic and doesn't product carbon monoxide like traditional fuels.

2. To make soaps and other products. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), cooking fats, oils and greases can also be recycled to use in a variety of consumer products, including hand soap and cosmetics.

3. To help nourish plants at water treatment plants. Although it may sound counter-intuitive, recycled cooking oils and grease can also be used to help keep the aquatic plants thriving that are used to remove toxins from water at water treatment plants. These plants also produce a by-product called "bio-gas" that can be used to generate electric power. Some of these water treatment plants get up to 100 percent their electrical power from such plants.

4. To create fuel for heating. Bio-fuel can not only be used for vehicles. This "green" fuel can also be used to heat homes and businesses.

5. To make paints and polymers. Even so-called brown grease (the kind that is found in the grease trap) can be used to create paints and polymer products.

Recycling your restaurant's cooking oil makes sense for your business and for the planet. You discarded oil can be used to create a clean fuel for vehicles, consumer products like soap and cosmetics and even help produce electric power. For more information, contact a company like Ace Grease Service.

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