Wasted cooking oil might seem harmless – it’s just fat, after all. However, disposing of used cooking oil improperly is illegal and can lead to ecologically destructive consequences. Instead of contributing to oil waste and drainage clogs, consider recycling your cooking oil. Recycled grease can be processed into renewable fuel, a clean-burning and renewable fuel that is just as effective and versatile as regular diesel. Here, SeQuential discusses why and how to dispose of your cooking oil in an environmentally friendly manner by recycling it.
Protecting Ecosystems and Habitats
When fat, oils, and grease (FOG) enter into pipes and sewer systems, they collect and congeal into hard, sticky masses. Other kinds of debris can also attach onto the mass, as does more grease. Over time, the layers build up into a truly massive block of fat and debris called a fatberg. Fatbergs are destructive to pipes and sewer systems and cause clogs, backwashes, and flooding.
Not only does sewer grease damage the sewers, but the associated backwashes and flooding are also destructive to the surrounding environment. These floods can dump garbage, grease, and raw sewage into the ecosystem, killing local plants and wildlife and contaminating the soil needed for future growth.
Creating Renewable Energy
When you recycle your used cooking oil with SeQuential, it can be processed into renewable fuel that’s less destructive than fossil fuels – many of which are becoming more difficult to access.
Unlike fossil fuels, renewable fuel – is well, renewable. As long as there is used cooking oil, we can keep making renewable fuel to power vehicles, equipment, and machinery. It’s also much less carbon intensive to acquire. By recycling your oil with SeQuential, you can support a reliable and eco-friendly energy source.
Reducing Air Pollution
Renewable fuel burns much more cleanly than its fossil fuel counterparts, as greenhouse gas emissions are one of the biggest contributors to global climate change. Carbon dioxide, ozone, and particulates blanket the atmosphere in a greenhouse effect, warming the earth and disrupting natural climate patterns. The smog also infuses into rainwater, creating acid rain that damages both infrastructure and ecosystems alike.
Thankfully, renewable fuel burns with about 75% fewer emissions than petroleum and is produced locally on the West Coast. Instead of being shipped cross-country or even overseas, your used cooking oil is recycled, processed into renewable fuel, and distributed to renewable fuel stations in California, Oregon, and Washington. This means less distance to travel and fewer emissions from transport vehicles.
Recycling with SeQuential
Every day illegally dumped cooking oil contributes to blockages and sewage floods in cities around the world. By recycling your cooking oil, you can do your part in reducing waste and preventing these spills. And when recycling with SeQuential, that oil then gets transformed into renewable, clean-burning fuel that’s less harmful than fossil fuels. Even one person can have a positive impact, and with every new person who starts recycling used cooking oil, this effect grows.
Start recycling your cooking oil with SeQuential. Across the West Coast, we help business owners, home chefs, and others recycle their used cooking oil before processing it into eco-friendly fuel. To find out how to dispose of used cooking oil in an environmentally responsible way, contact us today.