The environmental and economical benefits of recycling vegetable oil
Vegetable oil, and similar products such as sunflower oil and rapeseed oil, are used in homes and catering kitchens across the globe. Every year, we use millions of tonnes of cooking oil and, once filtered and recycled, this used oil can be used as a key ingredient in many products, especially bio fuels which limit the overuse of fossil fuels.
Recycling your used vegetable oil has immense environmental benefits, as the alternative is to send it to landfill or pour it down the drain. Both of these options can cause major problems and pollution to the natural world and our waste water systems, and so it has become a legal requirement to dispose of your waste cooking oil responsibly.
In some cases, waste vegetable oil from cooking in the catering industry has been known to clog the drainage system to such an extent that a ‘fat berg’ has formed. These fat bergs are costly to remove and can result in the businesses responsible being prosecuted.
Legal Requirements to Recycle Vegetable Oil
The Water Industry Act makes it an offence to discharge anything into the sewer system that could stop the water flowing freely, and the Food Safety Act 1990 governs the effects of disposing of vegetable oil which contravenes food hygiene regulations. If, as a business owner, you are found to contravene this legislation, you can be fined or even forced to stop trading.
How to Recycle Vegetable Oil?
Recycling vegetable oil is simple to do, especially if you bulk buy oil for use in catering, such as in a restaurant or factory. Many vegetable oil suppliers, such as Cater Oils, will supply oil storage containers to you to keep your used vegetable oil, and then collect it from you for free, helping you to minimise both your environmental impact and you waste oil management expenses.
Once collected, we safely and legally transport your used oil to our facility, where all the moisture and impurities from cooking are removed. It can then be pumped into a waste oil storage tank, ready for biofuel production.
What can recycled Vegetable Oil be used for?
Although dirty, most used vegetable oil is not useless. It can be filtered and used in a wide variety of ways, limiting the impact of oil production and the pollution it can cause.
Once filtered and recycled, it can be reused as cooking oil and even used to manufacture animal feeds. Here at Cater Oils, we process vegetable oil and convert into a biodiesel fuel to generate power.
Using biofuels, such as this has additional environmental benefits as it can burn clearly, generating much less air pollution than fossil fuels.
Responsible Waste Oil Disposal
As a responsible business owner, whether you run a restaurant, chip shop, cafe or fast food takeaway, operating in an environmentally friendly way is a top priority.
There are lots of steps you can take to limit your impact, such as finding ways to sustainably source your ingredients or using recycled takeaway containers , but using a professional vegetable cooking oil collection service may be the best step you can take as it can also save you money!
Contact the team at Cater Oils today to discuss our waste vegetable oil management services. We’ll make the process hassle free and straightforward.
