If you’ve already decided to recycle used cooking oil in your commercial food prep facility, you’ve made the smart choice. It also means you’ll need to designate a container for collecting and storing used cooking oil during daily operations. For safety and efficiency, it’s important to keep that container in good condition and avoid leaks, spills, and other issues. SeQuential offers a simple checklist to help prevent used cooking oil container leaks and ensure your storage container delivers reliable use day after day.
Schedule Regular Pickups
Used cooking oil becomes heavier as it solidifies, especially when large quantities are collected. Allowing your used cooking oil container to get too full puts stress on its structure and can lead to deterioration over time. To prevent this excess stress, make sure to schedule regular oil pickups based on how much you produce and how quickly you fill the container. SeQuential will work with you to determine the best schedule for oil pickup based on how much used oil you produce, how quickly you produce it, and what suits your facility’s operations. At the same time, busy periods and changes in your menu or methods may fill your container faster than expected. In that case, let us know and we’ll stop by sooner to ensure you can keep your kitchen neat and avoid spills or leaks.
Choose a Good Location
Oil containers need to be rugged, especially when placed outdoors or in an area without temperature control. When left outside, these containers face a lot of wear and tear, especially in areas that experience extreme weather or significant temperature fluctuations. Place your container where it will be shielded from excessive heat and provide cover to prevent rain and snow from collecting and getting inside.
Regular Inspections
Any kitchen or food production area should have a cleaning checklist with tasks to be completed daily and weekly, this checklist should also include the inspection of your cooking oil container. Including this on your list helps keep your space free from contaminants and will allow potential issues to be caught before they develop into serious problems. You should have someone regularly look around the container for any cracks, holes, or wet spots on the ground that could indicate a leak. If you can catch damage right away, you can save yourself a lot of effort down the road.
Only Put Cooking Oil in the Container
Used oil containers can look like a lot like a trash can or dumpster, making them tempting places to throw away waste, trash and other cooking byproducts. However, it’s essential that only cooking oil is put in the container to make sure it can be recycled. In addition, foreign substances may cause damage to the container’s interior and weaken its integrity. Keep your container locked to prevent unauthorized access, and be sure to properly train employees on the proper disposal of used cooking oil and all kitchen waste.
Ensure Reliable Use from Your Used Cooking Oil Container
By following these simple steps, you can keep your used oil container in good shape and help make sure the cooking oil is safe to recycle. At SeQuential, we strive to make this process as simple as possible for your business. As part of our used cooking oil collection services, we will provide you with a free container and lock to keep the contents safe. And because damage can occur even when you take precautions, we offer replacement containers at no cost to you. If you have questions on recycling cooking oil or how we create clean, low carbon renewable fuel, browse through our best practices or contact us today.