Today, most people ask, where can I get rid of my old cooking oil?
Unknown to many people, they can take it to used cooking oil collection centers near them.
But we digress a little. You need to know about the copious amounts of UCO (used cooking oil) that are dumped in the sinks daily.
In 2020, about 10.45 million metric tons of soybean oil were consumed in the USA. That is a lot of cooking with just one type of oil. While the cooking oil-recycling bug is catching up fast, it is still a little too late for most food businesses.
In the restaurant business, many tons of oil end up in the drain daily. However, the campaign is on to get the restaurants to recycle cooking oil.
This has many benefits. One of them is that you will not have to pay to unclog your kitchen drain. Dumping cooking oil down the drain is one of the biggest culprits of clogged drains.
8 Reasons why UCO recycling is vital
Before you dismiss it as another tree-hugger initiative, you need to know the economic and environmental benefits of recycling used cooking oil.
Here are 8 main reasons for recycling UCO:
1. Save money on plumbing costs
If you run a restaurant, you know that most people do not pay attention to the used cooking oil going into the sink. Most just worry about solid food material.
However, cooking oil melts in hot water, so it goes straight down the drain. When it comes across the cold drainpipe surface, it turns solid and sticky, attaching to the pipe walls and reducing the surface area of that pipe.
Sooner than later, you will need to hire a plumber to unclog your drain system. According to fixr.com, the national average cost for unclogging a kitchen sink is $300.
Of course, for a restaurant, the cost is going to be higher than that because the drainage system can be complicated.
Thus, by identifying used oil collection services to take your UCO to, you will be doing your budget a big favor. Just sensitize your workers on the need to separate the used cooking oil from other waste liquids.
2. You can make money
If you have a business that generates a lot of used cooking oil daily, you can make money from the oil.
The recycling companies are going to pay you to collect and keep the used oil for them. They will also collect it from your premises. Therefore, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by keeping the used oil aside.
3. You will do Mother Nature one good turn
When you take part in recycling used cooking oil, you will be doing the environment one big turn.
This old oil is recycled into biodiesel, which is used to run vehicles and machinery that uses such fuel. Less dependency on fossil fuels is great for the environment.
4. It is good for the sewer line at large
Wastewater from the kitchen and toilets usually meet in the municipality sewer line.
Tons of used cooking oil getting into the municipal line daily could eventually lead to clogging because it solidifies in low temperature.
This can cause sewage to overflow in the streets, which causes a public health hazard.
5. The recycling company carries the entire burden
Imagine the size of storage that you would need to recycle the used cooking oil in your business or at home. First, oil is greasy so it makes everything around it dirty if it is not covered properly.
Secondly, it increases by the day for restaurant businesses. Instead of worrying about where and how to store it, just find a used cooking oil recycling company to do the dirty work and pay you while at it.
6. Keep your business running all the time
The last thing that a restaurateur wants to do is to close their business for hours or days so that plumbers can fix a clogged drainage system.
To prevent that, you just need to collaborate with used oil collection services to arrange how they will collect the used cooking oil.
7. A good source of nutrients for animals
Studies show that recycled cooking oil has 2.25 more calories than corn. Therefore, it is processed with poultry, pig and cattle feed to boost the caloric intake of these animals.
When you give your animals food that has more calories, you just need to feed them a small amount.
Eventually, this leads to lower costs, which in turn means a higher return on investment.
If you look at the bigger picture, it means buying less animal feed, less transport means less emissions, which is beneficial to the environment.
When you are looking at the benefits of recycling old cooking oil, you must look at the bigger picture.
8. Recycling the oil keeps your business clean
No kidding, but when you keep too much old cooking oil in a bin or container, low temperatures solidify it.
Since this is not clean oil, it starts to stink and rodents come in hordes to have a party, right there in your backyard. In a restaurant business, you know you cannot afford to have rodents or your customers will never trust you again. Rodents get into contact with sewerage and other dirty places. They are some of the most notorious disease carriers. Flies and other bugs like to flock places with grime, grease and old oil. The best way to do that is to keep everything clean.
Contact a used cooking oil collection service to get rid of your UCO. That is the only viable way to keep your work and home environment clean.
Final Thoughts
They say one man’s trash is another man’s gold and nothing is truer than having to recycle old cooking oil.
In fact, you do not even have to do much about it – just collect it in the provided containers and once they are full, call the collection service of your choice to come collect it.
You will even get paid to have your oil recycled. That is much better than wasting it in a landfill, where it might eventually find its way to the water table and cause contamination.
