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Posted: November 22, 2006
The turkey is gone, tummies are full, the playoffs are over, Aunt Mabel is heading back for Missouri…another Thanksgiving has come and gone, but that leftover vat of turkey fryer oil still lingers on. Dump it? Reuse it? Put it in the trash? Send it home with Aunt Mabel?
No, no, no and no. The City of Plano will take that fryer oil off your hands free of charge, where it will be recycled for reuse into a clean burning biodiesel fuel!
Plano’s Household Chemical Collection Program offers a convenient pick-up service for the collection of cooking oil all year to Plano residents. The cooled oil needs to be placed in rigid plastic containers, labeled, and secured with screw top lids for transporting. It’s a snap! To schedule a collection, contact Environmental Waste Services at 972-769-4150.
Collected turkey fryer oil and other cooking oils will be donated to Texas’s first renewable energy-powered plant producing biodiesel fuel, Biodiesel Industries, Inc.
Oil and the environment just don’t mix. Even placing containerized oil in your trash cart is a seemingly good idea gone bad as the container will explode during trash compaction, causing oil to spew out to contaminate the trash and eventually leech into the soil and our water sources at the landfill. Pouring cooking oil down the drain and especially pouring it down a storm inlet allows the oil to enter our water sources and ultimately our drinking water.
“As residents realize that improper disposal of household chemicals is dangerous for the environment and impacts water quality, they understand the importance of more responsible disposal methods,” said Shannon Unruh, Household Chemical Education Coordinator. “Last year, we collected 1200 gallons of cooking oil for reuse as a clean, alternative fuel source.”
The City of Plano leads area recycling efforts through its innovative cooking oil collections program. The holiday season offers residents a unique opportunity to dispose of used turkey fryer oil, along with other cooking oils, for recycling into biodegradable renewable fuel.
Recycling cooking oil is an inventive approach to replacing petroleum diesel fuel, while helping the environment. Not only is biodiesel fuel non-toxic and biodegradable, but it significantly improves air quality.
“Biodiesel fuel offers an opportunity for Texas to replace the oil fields of the Middle East with the vegetable oil fields right here at home,” said Joe Jobe, executive director of the National Biodiesel Board.
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