With our impact on the environment becoming ever more apparent with each passing day, it’s important for us all to take steps in minimizing our carbon footprint. As a restaurant owner, you can contribute to the public’s efforts to decrease environmental destruction by recycling your used cooking oil, and better yet, you can make money doing so. Let’s take a look at some of the environmental benefits of recycling your cooking oil.
Recycling Cooking Oil for Use as a Renewable Energy Source
Improperly disposing of used cooking oil can lead to drainage overflow or damage to sewer pipes. Recycling used oil in containers for collection not only offsets the environmental impact of adding further contaminants to wastewater, but also can be used as a renewable alternative for fuel, such as biodiesel. By switching from petroleum-based fuel – which emits carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases – to renewable energy like biodiesel, we can minimize our impact on the ozone.
Mitigating the Environmental Impacts of Improperly Disposed of Oil
As mentioned, used cooking oil can damage city sewer pipes, but improperly disposing of fats, oils, grease, and solids (FOGS), or – in severe cases – illegal dumping, can gravely impact the local ecosystem. Fatbergs forming within the sewers can cause a blockage, which results in the seepage of dangerous bacteria like E. coli into water lines and soil. Illegally disposed oils can pollute groundwater, damaging nearby crops, rivers, and wildlife. Recycling cooking oil can mitigate these ecological disasters.
Recycling Your Cooking Oil Creates Jobs
While job creation doesn’t seem to directly impact the environment, generating careers in recycling and renewable energy can help mitigate the loss of jobs in non-environmentally friendly industries. A contributing factor to why industries still deal in nonrenewable resources is the fact that it generates so many jobs, but as renewable energy continues to pick up steam, careers such as waste vegetable oil collection will be on the rise.
The environmental benefits of recycling your cooking oil help minimize greenhouse emissions and oil contamination and can even help stimulate the local job market. To start positively influencing the environment and even making some money in the process, start storing your used cooking oil today and develop a partnership with a collection company. At Food Grease Trappers, our collection services are operated on honesty and integrity, as we only sell to local, environmentally conscious companies. If you’re interested in hearing how much you can make selling us your used cooking oil, contact us today.
