Here is some rather good news to start off the week: San Francisco is expanding its grease recycling program to become the first city in the country to process, and convert to fuel, even the nastiest waste oil that restaurateurs had previously been forced to throw out.
Last week the city announced it would build a new "brown grease" recycling plant that would handle the sludge. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
The $1.2 million pilot program, which is being funded by state and federal grants, will go toward building a grease recycling plant near the city's Oceanside treatment plant. The program will allow the city to collect about 10,000 gallons a week of dirty grease, which can be converted into roughly 500 gallons of fuel.Currently, the city can only recycle "yellow grease" — the relatively clean waste oil that comes from deep frying. The new plant will be able to handle lard, pan scrapings, and all the other nasty gunk that can't even be composted.
Grease recycling is expanding nationwide. The same day San Francisco announced its plans to expand the recycling program, the New York Times reported that Westchester County, New York, would start collecting and processing grease from that county's roughly 3,500 restaurants. Currently, Westchester recycles grease from county facilities, but not private businesses.
San Francisco Greasecycle [Official Site]
S.F. to convert guckiest cooking grease to fuel [San Francisco Chronicle]
Turning Cooking Oil Into Fuel for the County [NY Times]
[Photo: Via Biskuit/flickr]
